The Semblances We Keep
by kiwidude4
Summary: Jaune had never been the most observant of people. That all changed the day he unlocked his Semblance. Now, as he arrives at Beacon, Jaune Arc is going to learn more about those around him than he really cares to. Some things are better left as secrets after all. Inspired by: Not This Time Fate, White Sheep, and Professor Arc.
1. Chapter 1-1

The Semblances We Keep: Volume One, Chapter One.

* * *

Ozpin nursed his ever-present mug of coffee as he looked out the large windows of his office, watching as an airship full of new students came into view. As always there were a few that were sure to be worth watching.

Pyrrha Nikos, the invincible girl and champion of Mistral, who had chosen to attend Beacon instead of her own kingdom's academy, Weiss Schnee, well the girl's surname spoke for itself really, and Yang Xiao-Long, a very strong brawler from Signal with an even stronger personality.

Then there were students like Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, and Blake Belladonna. Glynda wasn't exactly happy with him for admitting those three.

Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer and Taiyang, with genes like those she was sure to be one of Beacon's strongest, even if she was two years younger than her peers. Ozpin had already been considering letting her in early after the incident with Tortchwick, but seeing her silver eyes when he meet her in person only solidified his decision.

How was it that Qrow had never thought to mention that his niece inherited Summer's gift? Ozpin wondered if Qrow hadn't left that detail out intentionally, to protect Ruby from the headmaster and their secret war. Qrow was as loyal as they came, but family still came first it seemed. Even if that family wasn't technically blood.

Blake Belladonna, the ex-terrorist. Despite what the young faunus probably believed, Ozpin did know about her falling out with the White Fang and thank Oum Glynda hadn't found that out. Miss Belladonna hadn't even bothered to change her outfit for the entrance exam. Did she really think Atlas _security_ droids didn't have cameras? It's a good thing for her the Atlas military doesn't like to share information with the Vale Police Department. Ozpin however, had one rather highly placed ally within the Atlesian ranks and luckily for Miss Belladonna the headmaster had made the decision to secretly wipe the records after watching them.

Finally, there was Jaune Arc, at first glance, an underwhelming boy from a more notable family. Ozpin had allowed him into Beacon with only a recommendation from the local sheriff and a promise from the young man's father that he had been trained up to a level satisfactory for Beacon. The Arc name aside, this was hardly enough to earn him a place at Vale's prestigious academy. However, some of the things in the sheriff's letter had been...interesting, to say the least.

Ozpin glanced back out at the airship as it landed. Yes, Mr. Arc certainly seemed like the kind of person to leave a big impression.

* * *

Hidden away in the airship's bathrooms for the entire flight, Jaune Arc was busy vomiting into a toilet.

"It's a much more common problem than people let on." His mother had always told him.

 _Yeah sure, that's why I'm the only one not by the windows enjoying the view._ As the infernal motion ceased and his insides settled down, Jaune rose up off his knees and left the stall; moving over to the sinks to wash up. _Well at least no one saw me, that wouldn't have been the best way to start meeting new people._

Jaune stepped off the airship a few minutes later, following well behind the last few students as they moved across the stone courtyard. One girl however, didn't seem to have a very good sense of direction and was walking back towards him instead of the school. _Maybe she's lost?_

" _She is walking back towards the ship she just came from._ " Another part of his mind put in. " _She is intentionally moving away from all the other students, she is avoiding them on purpose."_

Jaune winced, "I really don't want your input." As usual, his inner voice didn't respond. The amber-eyed girl moved past him, long black hair swaying as she walked.

" _She walks with casual caution, like someone accustomed to stealth._ " Jaune ignored the voice and moved on towards the school. He stared up at Beacon's many towering spires with awe. He couldn't believe he was actually going to become a huntsman. Distracted, he nearly walked over some red luggage someone had left lying around.

"Welcome to Beacon." The luggage murmured to itself. Jaune did a double take. _Oh it's a person. Why on Remnant are they laying in the middle of the path?_

" _Socially awkward._ " The traitorous voice in his skull stated.

"Hey, I'm Jaune." He said, leaning down and offering a hand out to a little girl in a red hood.

* * *

Ruby was having one heck of a bad day.

First, her sister had ditched her. Then, she tripped over some crabby girl's luggage and then got yelled at by the girl and then Ruby _literally_ exploded and then the crabby girl had yelled some more! Next, when Ruby thought she might be able to make friends with that dark-haired girl, they had ditched her too!

Finally, when she did manage to make a friend, it was only because he had thought she was some kind of magical talking luggage and nearly tripped over her! Ruby didn't know much about talking to boys, but from what she had heard from Yang, getting called baggage probably wasn't a good thing.

"…All I'm saying is that you were lying in the middle of the path and all of us new students are moving in so there was a lot of it going around." Jaune said sheepishly.

Ruby laughed nervously, as much as she loved finding someone as awkward as her, she needed to change the topic to something that didn't involve comparing her to a suitcase. "So… I got this thing." She said, whipping out Crescent Rose _._ Talking about their weapons, that's a safe topic. She could handle that much, right?

"Whoa!" Jaune shouted, clearly in awe of her baby. "Is that a-"

Ruby smiled inwardly, not many huntresses could use scythes. She didn't even know if there was anyone other than her and her Uncle that did. She waited for him to finish the obvious question…

"-customizable high impact sniper rifle?" Jaune finished.

"A wha-" Ruby said, dumbfounded for a moment, not noticing Jaune as he winced at her reaction.

No one ever asks that first. I mean he must know about weapons and stuff since he's attending Beacon, but they always ask about the scythe first. I guess the scythe part must be kind of obvious though… Still, if he noticed what kind of gun Crescent Rose was that fast he must really like weapons! This is great! I can't wait to see what his looks like!

"So what've you got?" She asked excitedly.

"Oh-uh, I got this sword." Jaune responded, holding up a simple looking blade.

 _Well it's no Crescent Rose, but I bet it does something insane, like shoots lightning out of the end! Or maybe he can set it on fire with the press of a button!_ Ruby couldn't wait to find out. "Oooooh." She said with interest, waiting for him to continue.

"Yeah, and I've got a shield too!" Jaune pulled out the other half of his gear. It was a clean white metal with two golden slivers on the front. It matched the sword well, but it was pretty basic. Like really basic for Beacon, or even Signal.

 _Okaaayyy…_ Ruby was starting to have doubts, but if he knew exactly what kind of rifle she had, _surely_ he must have built in some really neat features. "So what do they do?" She could barely contain her excitement at this point.

Jaune pressed something and the shield folded and unfolded as he whirled it through the air, well not whirled so much as fumbled and then dropped. "The shield gets smaller." Jaune said happily, picking it back up.

Ruby stared at him blankly waiting for more. "…and?"

Jaune looked at her awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. Ruby's hopes shattered and died. _It gets smaller? T-that's it!?_

"Well uh, I guess I did go a little overboard designing mine." She said, trying to salvage the conversation.

"Wait, you made that?" Jaune asked. He honestly looked surprised that she would even be able to do so.

"Of course! Didn't you make yours? You seem to know a lot about weapons. You noticed my sniper rifle right away." Ruby was getting confused now. This guy made no sense.

"It's a hand me down." Jaune explained. "My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"Sounds like a family heirloom to me, I like it!" Ruby tried to sound encouraging, wanting to make Jaune feel better and figure him out at the same time "but why not build your own?"

"W-well uh, " he started slowly "…I'm not really that familiar with building crazy weapons. I just uh, like reading about them, yeah."

"Didn't your last school make you learn how?" Ruby was both mildly offended and proud that he would call Crescent Rose 'crazy'.

"I didn't actually go to a hunter school before this. I'm from a small town a ways outside of Vale itself, so my father taught me instead." He said a little more quickly, but he still sounded nervous.

 _Well that certainly explained most of what he had said. He likes weapons, but doesn't know how to build them. Hmmmm…_ Internally, Ruby rubbed her hands together like some kind of comic book villain. _If I help him build a new weapon I can tell Yang I'm spending time with a new friend, all while getting to build more babies_. She cackled to herself…

"Uh, Ruby, are you okay?" Jaune asked nervously.

Uh-oh, had she cackled out loud? "Oh, I'm fine, ignore me." She shuffled her feet. _I just have to find a way to ask him if he wants to build a new weapon with me._

"I'd love to be able to build my own and I'm sure my family would feel better if Crocea Mors was back in Ansel." He said, gesturing to the sword and sheath at his hip.

Or that could happen _. Do I have mind powers?_ "I mean if you needed help, I suppose I could…" She trailed off, hoping her newfound powers would help out once more.

"I wouldn't want to trouble you. It sounds like that would take up a lot of your time."

 _That's the whole point you idiot!_ Drat. No mind powers it seems. "Really, I wouldn't mind." She tried again.

"I wouldn't want to be a bother." Jaune said, crushing her dreams once more.

"Please, Jaune. Let me help. Please. Please. Please." She looked up at him, doing her best Zwei impression.

"What?" He seemed confused at her sudden change.

"I mean uh…" Ruby realized she'd given herself away and gave up. "I like weapons more than people!" She shouted.

Oh no. That came out all wrong. Now he'd think she was weird. He'd make an excuse and wander off like everyone else had being doing to her today. She'd be back down to zero friends. Beacon was going so badly. How was she ever going to make anyone be her friend?

"Okay." Jaune said, pulling her out of her internal breakdown.

"What?" She said dumbly.

"I'll let you help me." He said with a grin.

"R-really?!" She asked timidly.

"Well as long as you're sure. Are certain you want to spend _all_ of your time making high-tech mecha-shifting weapons though?" Jaune was grinning wider now. He had clearly enjoyed her outburst.

"We are building you a new weapon, and that's final!" She declared in what she thought was a very adult tone. Jaune kept on grinning. Ruby wanted to get mad and pout at his teasing, but she was just too giddy to care. Already she was thinking about what kind of weapon he might like. Mumbling to herself about caliber sizes and blade types Ruby nearly missed his next question.

"Hey, where are we going?"

"Huh? I was following you." She said. Maybe there would be a directory near by...

* * *

"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" Called a girl who seemed to embrace the word 'sunny' a little too much, based on her bright hair and sunset scarf.

" _That's her sister._ " The voice inside said.

"That doesn't even make sense. She looks nothing like her." Jaune wondered if he weren't coming down with something if this was the conclusion he'd come to.

 _"Ruby got moved ahead two years and has been with you almost the entire time at Beacon so far. She is too socially awkward to have any friends not in her own year._ " Jaune could swear the voice sounded smug, even though that shouldn't have been possible.

"I'll see you after the ceremony!" Ruby called, already moving off towards the other girl.

"Hey wait!" He sighed, "Great. Where am I supposed to find another nice quirky girl to talk too?"

 _"Five steps back and two steps to your left._ " The voice chimed in.

"I'm going to make friends the normal way, thanks." Jaune glanced at the 'nice quirky girl' in question. She had beautiful long hair, as red as blood, that hung down in a ponytail and a kind face with bright emerald eyes that moved to stare back at him. Jaune moved off quickly before the girl would think anything of it.

 _"She noticed you not noticing and she liked it."_ His inner voice purred.

"How!? Who likes being ignored?" This was too much to deal with right now. Jaune wandered off to find a quiet corner, away from the attractive yet strange woman who got off on being neglected. A tall man with a cane stepped forward on the stage shortly after and moved towards a microphone to address them. As the headmaster began his speech, Jaune spotted Ruby and her apparent sister among the crowd of students in front of him.

He still wasn't sure how to feel about Ruby helping him make a new weapon, even if she really really wanted to. It wasn't so much that she would be giving up her time for it, it was more that he had already known she would agree. It felt manipulative using his abilities like that. He did need a new weapon though. Crocea Mors wasn't exactly cutting edge technology and he'd need all the help he could get to catch up with the other students. Still, you were supposed to find out what people were interested in by talking to them, not with stupid Semblances.

Jaune's Semblance was one of those annoying, uncontrollable, passive ones. It had no on switch and, sadly, no off switch. He was just hit with instinctive conclusions that someone _could_ have been come up with if they really thought about it. Like Blondie being Ruby's sister or that Ruby's weapon was a customizable high impact sniper rifle or that tall redhead's fetish…

Okay, maybe it _was_ a little stronger than just clever deduction. Jaune sighed and leaned up against a wall as the headmaster continued his speech. "…But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction..." The grey haired man spoke with a mysterious and wise air to his voice.

 _"He wants to make you all his pawns."_ His Semblance remarked, making Jaune question his sanity once more.

* * *

"It's like a big slumber party!" Yang said to her sister, crashing down next to her.

"I don't think dad would approve of all the boys though." Ruby didn't even look up from her letter as she spoiled Yang's fun.

"I know I do." Yang purred back. Sometimes Ruby could be such a downer. Yang wasn't sure if Ruby was ever going to take an interest in such things. Not that Yang liked the idea of her sister going anywhere _near_ someone of the opposite gender. Yang stared across the ballroom at said shirtless boys as one more entered her vision. He was holding what looked like a blue blanket. _Odd._ She continued to stare at his bare chest when the boy glanced her way.

"Hey Ruby, isn't that the guy you were with earlier? John?" Yang asked. She didn't know how to feel about Ruby's first friend at Beacon being a boy, but beggars couldn't be choosers and Ruby was _definitely_ in that category when it came to meeting new people.

Her sister glanced up. "It's Jaune, not John." Ruby whispered to Yang as she waved the boy over.

Aaaand now a shirtless guy is coming over to talk to my little sister. Why did I do that?

"You must be Ruby's sister. The name's Jaune Arc short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!" The tall boy declared confidently as Yang and Ruby stood up to meet him.

 _Oh hell no!_ This was the wrong kind of guy to be around Ruby. He was way too suave to be near her sweet innocent baby sister. Yang needed to shut this down quick.

"How did you know she was-" Ruby started.

"Do they though?" Yang cut in, filling her voice with doubt.

"T-They will." He stammered back. "I mean I hope they will. I mean my mom always said that…" he trailed off looking down at his feet, "…never mind."

 _Oh hell yes!_ Jaune wasn't suave. He was just as awkward as Ruby. She'd just been tricked by his smooth line and admittedly nice chest…

"Yang!" Ruby hissed, "You're staring."

Thankfully, Jaune didn't seem to have noticed Yang's wandering gaze, having just recovered from his stammering. Yang decided to press the advantage. "So lady-killer, I hear you and Ruby are going to be making a baby together."

Jaune sputtered and stammered in absolute shock and looked at Ruby. "W-what?!"

"Yaaaang!" Ruby threw a corgi pillow at her face. Totally worth it though, this guy was like a tall blonde Ruby. Maybe Jaune was secretly another of her half siblings, given his hair.

"She meant you and me making your new weapon!" Ruby explained with a flushed face.

"I see…" Jaune said, recovering a bit. "You weren't kidding when you said you liked them more than people." He finished, raising an eyebrow.

Yang laughed. Someone who wasn't totally freaked out by her sister's unhealthy obsession was good enough for her. Still though, she couldn't let him off the hook just yet and her curiosity was getting the better of her. "So what'cha got there, hot stuff?" Gesturing to the blue cloth in Jaune's arm.

"Oh, my pajamas." He said, showing them a fuzzy blue outfit with bunny slippers. It was adorable and horrifying at the same time.

"Why aren't you wearing them?" Ruby asked, tilting her head. Clearly missing how emasculating they would have been.

"Someone told me I would get weird looks if I did." He looked embarrassed and seemed annoyed at whoever had told him.

"Well whoever it was, they did you a favor." Yang turned her head back to Ruby. "Well he seems real enough, there you go! Plus one friend!"

Ruby muttered something about negative friends and then seemed to notice a girl sitting in the corner. "You know her?" Yang asked.

Ruby shook her head, "Not really, she saw what happened this morning with the angry girl and the explosions, but left before I could say anything."

Before she had a chance to escape, Yang dragged Ruby towards the girl in black pajamas and a matching black bow. Jaune followed after them, seeming unsure if their conversation was over or not. "Helloooo!" Yang sung out. This was great! Ruby was about to make two friends in one day!

In retrospect, Yang should really have known better. This was her sister after all.

/-/

"…Almost as lovely as this book…" The girl even looked irritated at the very effort of talking. "…that I will continue to read…as soon as you leave."

"Yeah, this girl's a lost cause." Yang made to walk away in defeat. One friend a day seemed to be what Ruby's upper limit was.

"What's it about?" Ruby asked.

"Huh?" The girl, who they now knew was Blake, looked surprised. Yang was suddenly filled with a tiny amount of hope. Ruby loved to read any adventure books she could get her hands on. Maybe this could still work, maybe they'd have a break through with a common interest in literature.

"It's about a man with two souls." Jaune responded, before Blake could answer Ruby's question. _Damn it. I forgot that there are two of them now_. Yang growled in frustration. How was she supposed to set Ruby up with friends when there was a second, larger and more masculine version of Ruby hanging around that was just as bad at talking?

"You've read it?" Blake asked, suddenly interested in Jaune.

"No, why?" Jaune asked obliviously. _What kind of question is that!? You just told us what it was about, and Blake clearly would know if you had lied. Sweet Oum, these two are hopeless!_

Blake just stared at Jaune looking equally confused. Thankfully, Ruby came in to save the day. "I love books." Her sister said, drawing the attention of Blake once more.

Yang soon lost interest in the conversation now that Ruby seemed to be having a bit of success and decided to indulge in a little Jaune watching while he was distracted. He was acting rather odd. The lanky boy was staring at Blake's bow with a frustrated expression, before rolling his eyes and muttering something to himself. _Yep, he's as weird as Ruby. Still though, why say you hadn't read a book just after explaining the plot?_

Ruby and Blake seemed to be finishing up their conversation and Jaune seemed suddenly eager to leave. "Well it was nice to meet you all, but I think I'm off for the night." He wandered away quickly.

"It was nice to meet you Ruby, Yang." Blake said and blew out some candles, plunging them all into darkness.

* * *

"What I don't need to break out of my shell that's absolutely-"

"Ridiculous!" Jaune finished for Ruby, passing by her with a smirk. Sometimes he just couldn't help himself. Yang and Ruby looked confused, but he was sure they'd chalk it up to a lucky guess like most people did. It wasn't that hard to figure out what Ruby was going to say even without a Semblance like his.

Now, I wonder what locker I put Crocea Mors in?

 _"Six three six._ " His Semblance was actually being helpful for once and not trying to set him up with crazy green-eyed women. Speaking of the devil…

 _Nope. Nope. Nope._ He was walking right past that minefield. Jaune hurried past her as she talked to some pretty white-haired girl.

 _"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."_ His Semblance was happy to inform him. _"Also, that was locker six three six they were standing next to."_

Jaune hit his forehead twice against one of the metal weapon lockers in frustration and turned back to the duo. The cute Schnee girl seemed to be plotting the end of the world as he slipped in between them to get his gear.

"Excuse me! What do you think you're doing?" The heiress asked. She sounded affronted that he dared to approach them.

"Just getting my stuff." Jaune turned away and began pulling gear out of his locker. The Schnee was pretty and all, but it wasn't worth the risk talking to her with crazy girl right there. He strapped Crocea Mors to one of the belts at his waist and began to close the locker. Now if he could just finish up quickly enough…

"Nice to meet you! I'm Pyrrha." The Amazonian said cheerily. _Damn it, too slow._

"Jaune." He nodded at her and kept his voice neutral. He didn't dare to be too rude, lest she try jumping him right there in the locker room. He moved in between them again, trying to escape.

"Jaune, is it?" Weiss said, catching his arm. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company?" He asked hopefully. _Maybe she likes what she sees._

 _"She doesn't like what she sees."_ Jaune's Semblance quickly informed him. Jaune slumped internally, so much for that idea.

"Well, yes." Weiss replied, clearly pleased to be recognized, despite how she may feel about Jaune himself. "But I meant Pyrrha." Weiss gestured to the girl just behind him.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha waved.

 _"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum."_ Said the voice in his skull. Was his Semblance seriously trying to play matchmaker right now?!

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum." Weiss echoed unintentionally.

"Never heard of it." Jaune responded, refusing to acknowledge his meddling Semblance.

Weiss sounded a little miffed and made a precious little scoffing noise. "She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row, a new record!" Weiss and his inner voice said together in perfect harmony.

"The what?" Jaune asked, pretending to hear neither of them. Weiss started screaming something about cereal boxes and Pyrrha's face, all while waving her arms up and down like a hummingbird. Jaune decided he couldn't let the snow angel suffer any longer.

"Oh, that sounds familiar." He lied. Jaune hadn't really been listening all that closely to be honest. It was hardly his fault. Weiss was pretty when she was angry.

"So do you really think _you_ are in a position to just rudely walk off, without even talking to her?!" Weiss demanded.

"Because she likes to eat cereal?" Jaune asked. _Surely that doesn't make her all that special right? I eat cereal too._

Weiss screeched. Pyrrha swooned. Jaune ran away.


	2. Chapter 1-2

AN: I loved some of theories you all threw around in the reviews last chapter. I won't comment on their accuracy, but they were enjoyable to read. Thanks for all the support as well, I can't say I was expecting anywhere close to this much interest.

Schedule wise, I'm going to put out a chapter each Friday until volume one is done, since I have that written already. It should be a total of six chapters. After that, it'll depend a lot on how well writing volumes two and three is going. I have a lot of stuff and a full plan for it, but not enough to be sure I won't run into a roadblock of some kind. So I'm not going to publish any of that until I'm certain it all works and I don't want to make any promises I can't keep.

Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

The Semblances We Keep: Volume One, Chapter Two.

* * *

"…That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Standing on a launch pad between Yang and Jaune, at the cliffs near the Emerald Forest, Ruby felt her world shatter and break. "What?!"

"Don't worry Ruby." Jaune whispered next to her, while Ozpin continued to give them instructions. "As long as you don't blindly rush through the entire forest searching for Yang, I'm sure you won't accidentally end up with someone who already hates you."

 _Well that was oddly specific._ It was also exactly what she had been planning to do, she admitted to herself in embarrassment. Maybe she should be a little more careful about something this important.

"Also," Jaune laughed at some inside joke, "watch out for birds."

Ruby's platform lurched beneath her feet not long after. Sending her high into the air and then slowly back down again. She fired off a shot to the side from Crescent Rose, tilting her body so that she narrowly missed a small Nevermore. "Hmm, good advice Jaune _._ " Ruby thought, as she used a tree branch to slow herself and landed nimbly on the grass of the Emerald Forest.

In the trees far away from her, Ruby swore she heard a dull twanging noise that sounded an awful lot like a spear hitting a tree and Jaune yell out, "Oh come on!" in exasperation.

"I'm sorry!" Another voice yelled from the opposite direction.

Okay, now just gotta find Yang and avoid everyone else. Stealth mode engaged!

* * *

Weiss thought she had seen a flicker of red in the bushes, but when she went over to investigate, it turned out to be nothing more than a few rose petals and not some smaller than average huntress.

"Psst, up here Snow Angel." Said a voice from a nearby tree. It was the voice of that clueless dolt from the locker rooms if she wasn't mistaken.

"Not interested." Weiss said, careful to not look up.

"Please get me down, she's coming for me!" Jaune said. He sounded truly afraid, but Weiss was having none of it. She wasn't about to be tricked into being partners with someone that annoying.

"What woman in their right mind would be after you?" Weiss asked, turning so that her back was to him.

"Well 'right mind' would be a strong term for someone who nails a guy to a tree with a spear." He jabbed back.

"Nice try, but I don't believe you, I'm not looking at you, and I'm certainly not being your partner!" She huffed, beginning to walk off.

"Hello again!" Said a very welcome voice.

"Argh! She's here." Said the man in the tree. "Please Weiss, you're my only hope!"

"Pyrrha, good to see you." Weiss said, turning back toward the champion with a smile, ignoring Jaune. "I'm confident we shall make excellent part-"

Weiss wasn't one to swear, she had been raised a proper Schnee after all, but looking up as Pyrrha pried her spear loose from Jaune's hoodie and forced him to make eye contact with her, Weiss really wanted to curse her rotten luck. Jaune slumped down; looking resigned to his fate and followed after Pyrrha Nikos.

Well at least this day couldn't get any worse.

"Ruby is that you?" A well-endowed blonde girl pushed through some bushes as Weiss turned back around. "I saw how worried you were about getting partnered with someone like that crabby Ice Queen, so I guess if you really feel that bad I could…" The girl trailed off.

Weiss saw lilac eyes looking back at her.

Well fuck.

* * *

"That's unfortunate." Thought Ruby, as she watched Yang and Weiss yell at each other in the distance. If only she had seen Yang before her sister had been paired up with Weiss, she might have been able to do something, but she had been too slow and too careful.

Curse you Jaune! I trusted you!

Ruby wandered off, wondering if anyone was going to be left at this point. She had already seen Jaune and Pyrrha heading towards the mountainside. Not long after a very mismatched pair had ridden past on an Ursa, going in the same direction as well. The boy had been hanging on for dear life, while the girl yelled loudly in excitement. It seemed like her options were narrowing fast. If Jaune was the reason she never got a partner she was going to kill him!

As she moved deeper into the forest she heard a rustle in the trees as something darted past her. "Hello? Is someone there?" Ruby pushed into some bushes and looked up. A pair of massive Ursa looked back down at her.

"Nope."

Ruby dashed backwards to gain distance and fired off a shot at the first one. The Ursa just looked mad and came charging in with a roar. Ruby rolled to the side unfurling Crescent Rose as she did, fired two rounds behind her for speed and rushed back with a yell, swiping at its neck and using both her own weight and her weapon's to decapitate the Ursa with a clean strike.

"Oh yeah, go Ruby!" She cheered, punching a fist up and jumping into the air. The second Ursa roared, almost on top of her now, then it flinched and tumbled to the ground, a variant ballistic chain scythe buried in its back. _So cool!_

"Whoa, that's a really epic chain scythe! Mines bigger and better, but uh… I mean yours is a sword too!" Ruby spouted rapidly at Blake Belladonna. "Is it also a gun?!"

Blake just smiled back at her and fired a single round into the air. After a moment had passed, the small Nevermore from earlier landed on the ground and began to dissolve. _Birdy no!_

* * *

"This is going a lot better than I expected." Jaune thought, as he wandered after Pyrrha. "She just seems nice, not crazy, and I managed to convince her that going into that creepy cave with the Death Stalker in it was a bad idea, so that's a plus. I mean she did try to unlock my Aura even after I told her my father took care of it years ago and then she started going on about how 'big it was'." Like he couldn't see the hint she was trying to drop there. Overall though, she just seemed to want a friend.

If only his Semblance didn't keep telling him otherwise.

She was pretty hot, even by Beacon's standards, but he wasn't about to start up anything he wasn't prepared for and she'd been scary aggressive about making sure he was her partner. After she'd managed that, she had started acting way more normal, but it had still been a bit disturbing. Also, Jaune knew he'd never have noticed her interest if it wasn't for his Semblance. Using his Semblance to get with girls that already fancied him wasn't technically unethical, but he really didn't feel all that comfortable with it either.

"Look Jaune, I see it!" Pyrrha shouted from up ahead. "You were right." She paused as she ran up to the ruin and tilted her head. "Right about the chess pieces too. I'm impressed."

"Lucky guess." Jaune shuddered as he caught up to her. _Ozpin really does want us to be his pawns then._

"Which one should we take Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she glanced at the pedestals around them. Jaune didn't answer her. Instead, he walked forward and grabbed two white knight pieces.

"Um Jaune," Pyrrha looked hesitant to correct her new partner. "I think we were only supposed to grab one of them as a pair, not one for each of us."

"I know." Jaune said, and tossed the spare knight to Ruby just as she came running up behind them with Blake in tow.

"Welcome to Team Jaune." He grinned.

* * *

Nora was having the time of her life.

First, she got partnered with Ren and then she got to ride an Ursa. Then, when it 'broke' they had found a really cool cave! Ren hadn't wanted to go in to explore it, but she dragged him in anyways.

Nora shook her head in amusement. He could be so silly sometimes.

Now Ren was getting a free catapult flight to the ruins, courtesy of the Death Stalker she was currently riding. A ride from an Ursa _and_ a Death Stalker in one day?! This was for sure the best day ever! She'd even seen a giant Nevermore flying by with what looked like two of her classmates on it. Nora didn't even know how they had managed to get up there in the first place, but she couldn't wait to meet such fun people! She was sure they'd get along famously.

"Yee-haw!" She yelled, as the Death Stalker crashed towards her destination. Now she just had to find Ren and they could ride it back to Beacon together! Well not together-together…

She jumped off the Death Stalker, giving it a good smack with Magnhild, dazing it. "Stay right there. I'm going to go get Renny!" She giggled and skipped around the back wall of the ruin.

"My back." She heard Ren say in a pained voice. Maybe she could give him a massage later if he was feeling sore from all that flying. Nora rounded the corner, coming across seven other hunters and huntresses. She gasped as she saw another woman on top of Ren. Some pale-haired! Flat chested! Floosy! Was riding her Ren!

"Get off my Renny!" She yelled, swinging her hammer in rage.

* * *

The world hated her, Weiss was sure of it.

She had only woken up in the infirmary a few hours ago to find out that it wasn't a Grimm that had put her there, but something called a 'Nora'. She'd been knocked out for the entire finale of initiation, which somehow meant she was now the leader of Team SYVR (Silver).

As pleased as she was about that, Weiss had no idea why getting knocked out by a fellow teammate was what qualified her for the position. Weiss Schnee supposed that Ozpin must have had his reasons and wasn't just doing it because silver started with an "S". That would be pretty irresponsible of him. It's not like the headmaster was irresponsible after all. Even if he did launch a bunch of teenagers into a Grimm infested forest… Never mind. Weiss was _sure_ he had his reasons.

She was a bit less thrilled about her team.

Weiss was standing on the stage with a horrid neck brace and a cast on one foot. After swinging a giant hammer at her face and knocking Weiss unconscious, it seemed that the crazy girl had also tried to "Break that skank's legs!" before getting pulled off by the others. As the injured girl stood next to her new team, Weiss couldn't help but think that this was the worst day of her life.

Her team consisted of herself, Yang Xiao-Long, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren. One teammate had already called her a crabby ice queen and basically abandoned her on top of a giant Nevermore. While another teammate had put her in the hospital, _on purpose_! Ren, the only normal one, seemed to never be too far from the crazy girl with the hammer, so Weiss couldn't even count on him for a bit of sanity.

At least the Nora girl wasn't trying to kill her anymore. In fact, Nora seemed to have completely forgotten how Weiss had even gotten her injuries in the first place. Thanks to her Aura, Weiss would be back to full health in less than a week, but this still was just about the worst way to start off the year. She had to work so hard just to prove she was strong enough so that her father would let her study at Beacon and not Atlas, and now here she was, getting injured on the very first day.

As Weiss moved off, another team came up onto the stage after them, Team BRAN (Brandy). _Who was even making these names up? Someone's drunken uncle? Brandy was barely even a color!_

They seemed to be having a much better time. While Weiss had been unconscious they, and the remainder of Team Silver, had managed not only to complete initiation and carry her through it, literally in Yang's case, but also killed a pair of particularly large Grimm along the way. That team consisted of Blake Belladonna, who seemed shocked at being made the leader, Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, and Pyrrha Nikos. The three people who had managed to annoy her the most so far, current team excluded of course, had ended up with the one person she had actually wanted on her team.

 _Life just wasn't fair sometimes._ She moped as she lay down in her new bed. At least she could get a full night's rest so she could start fresh in the morning.

Yang began to snore loudly in the bed next to her and Nora started to talk about pancakes in her sleep.

Well fuck.

* * *

AN: I'm so sorry Weiss-chan. I promise things will get better.


	3. Chapter 1-3

AN: Guest users and people with PMs turned off, why do you ask me questions in the reviews? I don't mind reading them, but I just don't understand what it is that you expect me to do.

* * *

The Semblances We Keep: Volume One, Chapter Three.

* * *

"Team Brandy has it together." Blake thought to herself, as she watched Team Silver rush into Port's class at the last second. Yang was carrying the still injured Weiss Schnee over her shoulder like a sad sack of bleached potatoes. Ren and Nora came in just after with the girl's unused crutches. Blake had a hard time feeling sorry for a member of the Schnee family, but Weiss was certainly dealing with a lot right now.

Blake's own team was in much better shape, having left their dorm with more than enough time to get to class. Jaune was apparently an early riser and when Pyrrha had woken up to a running shower and no Jaune, she seemed eager to be ready as well. A little too eager in Blake's opinion, but the tall Mistral girl seemed harmless enough.

Ruby had wanted to decorate their quarters and had dragged Blake up to help her make 'bunk beds'. Blake tried to sleep in anyways, but her partner had for some reason brought a loud silver whistle along with her to Beacon. Blake was pretty sure that the ears under her bow were still ringing from it.

Sometime later, Jaune had informed them that it was 8:45 and that class started at 9. That was when Blake had started to feel bad. She had never been the most out going person, but now that she was a team leader it was even more apparent.

Jaune had been the one to get them to class on time. Ruby had been the one to organize their room and Blake had to admit that the current setup was efficient, though it was a bit of a safety hazard. Even Pyrrha stepped in to make sure Ruby straightened her uniform and didn't eat just cookies for breakfast. Blake meanwhile, had just gotten ready for class and hidden her uh… uh… her romance novels, yeah, that's what they were, romance novels. The whole time she had said naught but a sentence or two to her team. Her team had it together, but their so-called leader had absolutely nothing to do with it.

The Schnee girl was hardly doing much better, but with her injuries and the mad house that was Team Silver, it was actually impressive they had made it to class at all. As Professor Port droned on about cabbages and hordes of Grimm, Blake could overhear Yang quietly catching up with her sister. Despite her recently damaged cat ears, Blake still had no problem listening to them from five or six seats over. From Yang's side of the conversation, it seemed that Weiss had quickly figured out that Ren was the only person who had any form of control over Nora and had already been putting that to good use.

Even more surprisingly, based on how Yang was talking, it sounded like Weiss's injures had actually done the heiress a favor. Instead of yelling back at the Ice Queen, Yang had gone into big sister mode around the girl. Following her orders far more passively than someone like Yang normally would, as well as helping Ren to corral Nora.

When Professor Port asked for a volunteer, Yang took one look at her frustrated and injured partner and quickly raised her own hand. After smashing the Boarbatusk into the ground in a very dramatic fashion and regaining a little respect for Team Silver, Yang received a small smile from the normally frigid Atlesian team leader.

As class ended and her team walked out of the classroom, Blake wandered off down another corridor, promising to catch up later. Pyrrha was heading back to their dorm, while Jaune and Ruby were off to Beacon's workshop on some kind of secret mission to 'make a baby' as Yang had said. Given how casually Yang had said it, Blake was pretty sure it wasn't what it sounded like and didn't really want to know if it was. She wanted to be more involved with her team, but not _that_ involved. Still, she needed to find a way to start acting like the leader she was supposed to be. Maybe she could try the library for advice. It had never failed her before.

"Hmm. Someone seems to be rather down." An elderly voice said.

Blake jumped a bit, not many people could sneak up on her. Headmaster Ozpin stood a few feet away, regarding her with a neutral face. "Tell me Miss Belladonna, what seems to be the problem? Based on initiation and the day since, your team seems to have had a very strong start, so what has you looking so lost?"

Blake wasn't sure if she really wanted to talk about her problems with anyone, let alone the headmaster, but she couldn't exactly ignore a direct question from him. "That's just it Professor, my team is getting on fine, but I don't think I have anything to do with it."

The Professor merely gave her a look and took a sip of his coffee. "You've been burdened with a daunting responsibility Blake. I advise you take some time to think about how you will uphold it."

Well that wasn't very helpful. I'm already planning on doing that.

"And if you were wondering, I don't just mean reading books about leadership. Not all wisdom is written down in a library after all." Ozpin said with a knowing smile. Was she really that transparent? Blake realized that reading books was pretty much all she had done since arriving at Beacon instead of actually talking to her team. Maybe that was part of the problem.

Ozpin wandered off with a backward glance. "You aren't the first team leader to have doubts and you certainly won't be the last. Give it some thought Miss Belladonna, your team may not need you to be a leader right now, but someday that _will_ change."

/-/

Late the next day, Blake wandered aimlessly through Beacon and out onto one of the larger patios. As the early evening breeze caught her hair, Blake saw the leader of Team Silver sitting by herself, staring out over the school.

The Schnee girl wasn't exactly friendly, but if she was competent enough to have multiple bones broken on her first day and yet still hold Team Silver together, Weiss might be able to help her. Thinking on Ozpin's advice, Blake slowly drifted closer, unsure if she actually wanted to talk with the heiress. She wasn't really a fan of anything related to the SDC.

"Oh, hello Blake." Weiss sniffed, trying to hide her face.

 _Damn it, she's been crying._ Blake had more reason than most to hate the Schnee Dust Company, but as the ex-White Fang member looked down at the tiny, pale-faced girl next to her, red-rimmed eyes filled with tears and a pair of crutches leaning up against the bench nearby, Blake could feel her heart tearing itself in half at the sad picture. She couldn't just walk away.

"Is everything alright Weiss?" Blake asked as she sat down next to her.

"I'm just fine, thank you for asking." Weiss replied, with a tone of aloofness. Belied by the fact that her voice was cracking. Blake gave her a skeptical look.

"I just didn't get a lot of sleep the last few nights okay!" Weiss tried looking offended.

"Because of your neck or your leg?"

"Yang snores." Weiss pouted. "My team has the ability to make my life hell even when they're asleep. I don't know how I'm going to make it through four years with these people."

"You're a much better leader than I am Weiss."

"Blake, while you led your team to kill a giant Nevermore, I was strapped to Yang's back, out cold, while the rest of my team killed a Death Stalker. How does that make me a good leader? I didn't exactly make a good first impression in terms of leadership."

"And yet here you are, pushing on anyways. " Blake countered. "I saw the way you and Yang acted in Port's class. She may not have been your first choice, but it looks like you two are getting along. The rest of your team seemed supportive as well, now that Nora doesn't think you're trying to sleep with Ren. So what's bothering you?"

Blake had to wait a long time for her response.

"My-" Weiss choked back more tears, "my father tried to pull me out of Beacon."

Weiss sniffed and spoke up again, this time with a little anger in her voice. "When he found out about my injuries, he called the headmaster and demanded I be _returned_ to Atlas." Weiss emphasized the word like she was some kind of misplaced or stolen property of the Schnee Dust Company.

Pulling your child out of school on the very first week seemed like an overreaction to Blake. Huntsmen and huntresses got injured all the time. Their Auras could heal most wounds in a fraction of time it would take the average citizen to do the same. Getting beaten up was practically part of the job description. "Is that what has you so upset? Are you being forced to leave Beacon?"

"No. Professor Ozpin managed talk him down and I don't even know if my father can actually pull me out in the middle of the year if I don't want to leave, but he threatened to cut off my monthly allowance to force me back. It's stupid, I know. You probably think I'm just being an entitled little girl, but what kind of father stops supporting his daughter like that?"

"He was probably just worried about you." Blake lied. She had a hard time believing anyone who was responsible for such abusive labor practices was capable of compassion, even compassion directed at his own family.

"You've clearly never met him then. He probably just doesn't want the family to look weak." Weiss gestured at herself. "I'm doing a pretty good job at that right now. I care about my family's image, but no matter how hard I try all I ever seem to do is disappoint them."

Blake briefly considered making some snide comment about her view of the Schnee family image, but the thought of saying something like that to Weiss in her current state was sickening. "I don't think anyone who can handle a team with Yang and Nora on it could be called weak."

"Thank you, Blake." Weiss said with a small laugh, wiping away some tears.

Blake didn't have a clue how to fix Weiss's family problems, but perhaps she could at least offer her a distraction. She picked up the crutches and offered them to Weiss. "Come on princess, let's go get you some tea."

"I'd prefer coffee, if that's alright." Weiss said with a small smile.

* * *

"I hate this class." Jaune thought, as he charged towards the wall of metal and brawn that was Cardin Winchester, swinging Crocea Mors as he went.

" _He's going to dodge right and then swing high."_ His Semblance offered.

Jaune grimaced and ducked down after passing by Cardin. The huge mace swung just over his head. If Cardin was surprised that Jaune had dodged a strike he couldn't even see, the larger boy's face sure didn't show it. Neither did his mace. It came crashing back with a low blow to Jaune's stomach without any warning from his Semblance.

That was the biggest flaw with his Semblance. It was all good and well when he had a warning, but in the middle of combat there was rarely enough time to do anything about it. Jaune was doing a bit better than he had a few weeks ago, but he still wasn't able to hold his own against the huge leader of Team Cardinal.

As he clashed with Cardin once more, another warning had him tilting his legs to avoid a knee to the groin. Unfortunately, that was followed by a head-butt that sent a dazed Jaune tumbling backwards onto the mat. "And that's the match." Called Professor Goodwitch. Cardin's Aura was down to maybe sixty or seventy percent, but still much higher than Jaune's, which was a deep red, putting it well under the twenty-five percent mark.

"Mr. Arc, while your progress in the past few weeks is commendable, you need to start reacting better when your opponent follows up." Goodwitch may not know what his Semblance was, but it was her job to spot strengths and weakness in her students and hadn't take long to pinpoint Jaune's own problem accordingly. "You don't have the time to think about every move and you need to start sparring much more regularly if you wish to build up the instincts for it."

Jaune sighed, sheathing Crocea Mors, and moving off the stage after the grinning Winchester boy. He knew that already, but he didn't exactly have a sparing partner who would spend that kind of time with him.

Well, there was one person who had certainly offered, but he just couldn't bring himself to accept Pyrrha's help when she so clearly wanted to be more than just his partner. Pyrrha had been nice about it and much more passive than he had expected, but she still gave him those long looks when she thought he was looking the other way and his Semblance informed him of her 'secret' crush daily. Walking back to his team as class ended and everyone rose up to leave, said huntress gave him a gentle pat on his arm and once again asked if he wanted a sparring 'buddy'.

"Thanks, but I'm fine Pyrrha." Giving his usual response.

Blake gave them a determined look and stepped a bit closer as they all moved towards the cafeteria. "Actually, it's not fine."

"What?" Jaune asked. "Guys really, it's not a big deal."

"Losing to Cardin isn't the problem. Refusing to accept help is." Blake seemed set on this path.

" _She's going to order you to train with Pyrrha."_ Jaune knew better than to doubt his Semblance, but Blake was far too passive a leader. She hadn't given them a single order all semester.

"You are going to start training with Pyrrha." Blake said as predicted.

 _This has Weiss written all over it._ Jaune had no clue when, how, or why the two previously abrasive individuals had become friends, but during the first weekend after initiation, he had spotting them studying quietly together in the library. As the weeks had passed by it had gradually become a frequent occurrence to find the two leaders together. In Jaune's opinion, Weiss was clearly having a bad influence on his own, normally uninvolved, team leader.

He did need the training he knew that much was obvious. Still, that didn't mean he had to make it easy on her, nor get stuck alone with Pyrrha's subtle advances every single night of the week. "Fine." Jaune said flatly. "But I'm not going to just waste her time, _team leader_." He added a little defiance to his voice. "If you want me to train so bad, I want a few rounds with you as well."

 _"Pyrrha isn't too happy with how you said that."_

"You're my Semblance not my conscience, piss off." His Semblance was as nonresponsive as ever.

* * *

"That wasn't as bad as I expected." Blake thought, as she walked through the cafeteria. She hadn't even needed to make it a big issue of it, only compromise a bit and agree to take over for Pyrrha once or twice a week.

Blake sat down to eat with the rest of Team Brandy and Team Silver. The two teams had become fast friends thanks to the teamwork they showed in initiation and, due to Yang and Ruby being sisters, the two teams kept finding themselves eating as a group of eight until it had become habit.

Blake had also been pleasantly surprised at how little Weiss annoyed her. As long as she avoided talking about faunus or the SDC they found each other to be islands of peace between the two mad oceans that were their teams. The heiress had almost seemed desperate to spend time with her in the days after their talk on the balcony. Despite how much better Team Silver was functioning, Yang and Nora being anywhere near one another was apparently not Weiss's idea of a good time. Their teams had a strange symmetry in some superficial ways. With Pyrrha and Nora semi-secretly lusting after their respective partners and the two half-sisters as loud as ever, Weiss and Blake had a lot of shared misery to bond over.

She only wished all the other first year teams could be as friendly as Team Silver.

Blake watched as Team Cardinal surrounded its latest victim, a shy looking rabbit faunus from an older year. Sky was mimicking the girl's ears with his hands while Dove laughed and the other two blocked her escape. Blake felt her anger rising up as the teasing continued. Cardin and his team were nothing but bullies and racist ones to boot.

Cardin had once tried to prank one of her very own teammates, but had given up after a few attempts. While he still whaled on Jaune during combat class, it seemed that Jaune Arc was virtually bully proof. As long as Cardin didn't full on attack him, Jaune somehow always had an answer. He subtly dodged out of the way whenever Cardin tried running into him in the halls and all of Cardin's more elaborate plans had backfired in a fantastic manner.

Blake felt her anger fade a bit, to be replaced with mirth, as she recalled the time Cardin had launched Jaune out of Beacon in a weapons locker. Only to have the very same locker come crashing back down on top of the bully who had launched it, with Jaune walking out unharmed. How Cardin had messed up the coordinates that badly she never knew, but Winchester had soon learned that going after Jaune always ended up hurting his own reputation. Blake looked back over at Cardin and her rage boiled up even stronger than before.

"I told you it was real." Cardin chuckled, pulling on the poor girl's ears.

"What a freak!" One of his teammates said with a laugh.

She wanted to walk over there and tear _his_ ears off and ask him how _he_ liked it, but it would be four-on-one and what if her bow came loose during what would surely become a fight? That would be so much worse. She hated how selfish she was being, but she wouldn't risk her secret over a few bullies.

"Atrocious." Pyrrha said with a glower. "I can't stand people like him."

Maybe it doesn't need to be four-on-one.

Blake glanced in appreciation at her equally pissed off teammate. She had already tried being a more active leader once today and it had gone better than she'd hoped. Why not try again?

Maybe it could be four-on-four.

Blake looked at the rest of her team, Pyrrha and Ruby didn't seem to notice the expression on her face, but Jaune certainly did. He gave her a nod and then nudged Ruby up while Blake caught Pyrrha's attention. "Well then, we aren't _going_ to stand for it." Blake stated firmly as she lead Team Brandy over to the neighboring table.

Yang, noticing her sister being dragged into the drama, was quick to follow, and Nora, sensing a chance to break a limb or two, hopped up after her. With a sigh and an eye-roll respectively, both Ren and Weiss brought up the rear to keep Team Silver's more aggressive members in check. Before Team Cardinal even knew what was happening, they found themselves surrounded by not one, but two entire teams.

"Can I help you?" Cardin asked, standing up, trying to keep his bravado. Even if he was much taller then most of them, his team was outnumbered two-to-one and by now every first year at Beacon knew you didn't mess with people like Pyrrha, Yang, or Nora, let alone all three. Even the Schnee girl was sure to give you an earful if you crossed her.

"You can start by taking your hands off her, Cardin." Blake growled.

"Or what?" Cardin retorted, a little less sure.

"Or I'm going to make you sing like the pretty little cardinal you are, Winchester." Yang said, reaching down below his belt and twisting his…Oh.

Blake thought that was a little extreme, but it seemed to be effective as the rest of his team ran off in fear when Nora looked eager to copy Yang's effort. Cardin gave out a high-pitched whine and released the faunus, who ran off without saying a word. Not exactly the best thing she could have done to get rid of the rabbit stereotype, but Blake supposed it was better than nothing. Yang shoved Cardin away and he stormed out of the cafeteria in defeat.

"You'll pay for this!" Cardin yelled, once he had gained some distance, trying to keep up his tough guy act.

"Don't count on it." Blake replied with a dark glare.

* * *

AN: I have to say that Monochrome leadership is pretty enjoyable to work with.

For anyone wondering how Jaune anti-pranked Cardin, it is my own head cannon that Beacon's lockers must have some kind of return function. How else do they all get back afterwards? Do they just sit around until the janitors or Glynda gets them? Seems like a pretty crappy design if so.


	4. Chapter 1-4

AN: I've decided that I'm going to be splitting up the final chapter, so volume one will now be seven chapters. It was well over 7k words, which just isn't consistent with what I've been doing. Both parts have lots of stuff in them and I'm nowhere near ready on volume two, so it wouldn't be delaying that anyways.

* * *

The Semblances We Keep: Volume One, Chapter Four

* * *

 _"She's a faunus."_

"Fuck off," Jaune growled to himself as he sat down in Oobleck's class. "If she wanted me or anyone else to know she'd have said so by now."

" _She wears that bow no matter what, definitely ears of some sort. First in her combat outfit, then in her pajamas, and even now in her school uniform, she never takes it off."_ His Semblance had been bugging him about it since the very first night in the ballroom and it was only getting worse in the days after the incident in the cafeteria.

 _"She reads with only three candles to see with, humans don't have that kind of eyesight. That means she must be of the predatory or nocturnal variety, most likely both."_

"It's her business, not mine," he tried to argue, knowing the effort was wasted. Blake had an annoying amount of things to hide as it had turned out. So naturally, his Semblance absolutely loved talking about her. If an insentient voice could have a crush on someone, this was apparently what it sounded like.

 _"Projectile, six o'clock,"_ his Semblance said. Jaune lazily moved to the side as Cardin's paper triangle flew past him, catching Dr. Oobleck's attention.

"Mr. Arc!" Oobleck shouted into Jaune's ears. "Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"

" _Night vision."_ The voice was still pestering him about Blake's non-human abilities, even while it was pretending to be helpful.

"Binoculars," Jaune answered, doing his best to mock the voice in his brain. Why couldn't his Semblance just leave his friends alone? He had enough of his own secrets without knowing theirs as well.

"Very funny, Mr. Arc." Dr. Oobleck shifted his focus to the laughing Cardin. "Mr. Winchester, perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"

Cardin's predictably racist comment was followed up by an equally predictable retort from both Pyrrha and Blake. Seriously, why wasn't his Semblance telling him Pyrrha was a faunus as well at this point? Blake spent almost as much time around the girl as she did with Weiss these days.

In the time since Pyrrha had made it known that Cardin's attitude towards faunus was unacceptable, Blake had started sitting a lot closer to her in class. It made for a very hilarious situation of Blake wanting to sit near Pyrrha and not really caring either way about where Weiss sat, Pyrrha wanting to avoid Weiss if she could still be nice about it, and Weiss wanting to sit next to them both over her own team.

 _"Detention!"_ his Semblance yelled suddenly.

"What?" Thought Jaune in confusion.

Dr. Oobleck had finished telling off Cardin for his rude comments. "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings."

Damn it.

* * *

Blake wiped a small amount of sweat off her brow as she and Jaune took a break from their evening rooftop spar. This was third time the two had trained together and the dozen days or so that Pyrrha had sparred with him before that were already taking effect. Blake still beat the snot out of him nine and a half times out of ten, but his massive Aura meant that the Mistral champion had been able to push him harder than any other first year. It showed.

Previously, he had always been able to dodge or block her first attack no matter how fast it came at him, but now he was managing to block one or two of those that came after. In the sparing they had been through so far, Jaune was even starting to get used to her Semblance. No longer stumbling when his weapon passed right through a clone that offered no resistance.

It also helped that he wasn't using Crocea Mors still. Jaune had decided to keep his new weapon as mostly a team secret. Since Ruby had helped him make the current prototype and he only used it when sparing with Pyrrha and Blake, no one else would find out about it until he brought it to combat class.

Lignum Mors, roughly meaning 'stick of death'. Jaune had told her he thought it was a rather pretentions title, but Ruby loved it and she was doing seventy percent of the work and all of the planning, so Jaune supposed he could settle on the name.

It was pretty much that at the moment, minus the death part, a silver metal bo staff, about the length of Jaune's arm-span, with two pairs of blades at each end so that when he spun the staff it became a lethal wheel of destruction. Well in theory at least, she and Pyrrha didn't exactly have a problem knocking him around if they wanted to.

The gaps between the blades at each end would soon house a pair of yet undetermined guns, allowing for him to fire off shots from small triggers near the center of the staff, but for now, it just resembled a double ended two-pronged spear. Upon seeing it, Pyrrha had been visibly pleased with how similar Jaune's new weapon was to Miló.

As they got up to resume their sparring, Jaune tripped over some piping, stumbled, and fell forward onto his hands and knees. Blake did her best not to smirk too badly at his clumsiness and reached an arm out to pull him up. "You alright there?"

Jaune stood up with her help and brushed the dust off his knees. "Yeah sorry, it's pretty dark out and I can't see quite as well as-" Jaune clamped his mouth shut, eyes wide.

"Jaune?" Why was he acting…? Blake's eyes widened in realization, they narrowed a moment later. "How long have you known?"

"I-I…" After a moment or two of hesitation, Jaune slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Pretty much since day one."

Well at least he was clearly not about to go spreading her secret around the school if he'd known for so long already and had said nothing. The same went for the other secret. If he'd known she'd been White Fang, Blake doubted she would still be at Beacon, so there seemed to be no danger there. But how did he even find out so quickly? "What gave it away?"

Jaune started listing things on his fingers. "You don't turn on the lights to read, I know you've been eavesdropping on our classmates from halfway across the lecture halls, you stood up to Cardin both in the cafeteria and in Oobleck's class, and you literally never take that bow off."

Was it really that obvious? This was not good. "Who else knows?"

"Just me I think," he replied with a sigh. "Can I ask you something though? Why do you feel the need to even wear that bow in the first place?"

Well Cardin certainly gave her one very good answer for that question. "You may be willing to accept the faunus Jaune, but your species is not. I want to be judged for who I am, not what I am."

Jaune sighed once more, almost sounding disappointed. "Blake, if that was truly the only reason you'd have told the team already, at least I hope you trust us that much by now. Ruby doesn't have a mean bone in her and Pyrrha has made it pretty clear how she feels about anyone messing with a faunus. It also fails to explain why you would risk going after Cardin like you did a few weeks ago. You were willing to stand up for other faunus even when you won't stand up for yourself."

And that was the other reason that she wore the bow. Standing up for the faunus was what she'd thought she was doing when she was a part of the White Fang. As the years had gone by that stopped being the case, but she had gone in too deep and the White Fang wasn't something you could just tell people you were a part of, especially these days. Blake knew for sure now that her own team wouldn't treat her any different for being a faunus and Team Silver probably wouldn't either, though it was kind of hard to tell when it came to Weiss.

Beyond that, Blake didn't give a damn what any of the other students thought and her own team, especially Pyrrha, would be both willing and capable of knocking the lights out of anyone who treated her poorly, before she even got the chance to do it herself. But if her friends found out what else she was… what she'd been… what she'd done… Well, you could forget about Team Silver sticking around, it was lead by an actual member of the Schnee family and Blake doubted even her team would be okay with the fact that she'd been an actual terrorist.

Jaune seemed to have noticed her lack of response. "I can see you don't want to talk about it Blake, but you should at least consider telling Ruby and Pyrrha about your cat ears."

Blake sighed and nodded, she didn't exactly enjoy hiding her ears twenty-four seven after all. Besides, if Jaune had figured it out so quickly, it was only a matter of time before the other two wizened up, especially since they all lived together, and it was very damn apparent how little Team Brandy would care by now. Ruby had to be the nicest freaking person she'd ever met, Pyrrha had been even more vocal about defending faunus than Blake herself could afford to be at the moment, and her being a faunus wasn't something that linked her to the White Fang anyways.

Suddenly, Blake froze. "How did you know I have cat ears?"

"I just told you, the bow and your hearing."

"Sure, but I could have been hiding about a dozen other of types of ears instead, there's a pretty large number of possibilities." Now that she thought about it, the only time she ever took off her bow was in the…

"Have you been watching me bathe?!" Blake was suddenly furious.

"W-what?!" Jaune seemed mortified. "No, I swear! I just figured, uh… uh…" Well at least he wasn't a pervert. He looked far too shocked to be lying and it's not like she left the door unlocked when she showered.

"Alright, alright," she waved off his excuses. "How did you know then?"

Jaune answered her with a suddenly neutral voice. "When you decide to tell me the other reason you wear that bow, then I'll tell you how I guessed that bit."

Blake still didn't like the implication there, but she let it go for now. As pleased as she was that he didn't seem to care in the slightest that she was a faunus, Blake didn't want this conversation to continue any further, lest he find out anymore of her past. The offer certainly wasn't one she planned to take him up on.

"I think we've done enough for today." She moved towards the door. "Let's head back to the others."

"You go on ahead, I'm going to work on my Aura for a bit longer."

As she moved past him down the stairs, Blake noted with mild curiosity that Jaune seemed to be waiting for something. She didn't sense any change in his stance that would hint he was starting the routine Pyrrha had set for him and when she looked back he was just staring out over the rooftop.

* * *

Jaune didn't have to wait long.

"Oh Jaune," Cardin said with a satisfied laugh as he climbed up onto the roof. "I couldn't help, but overhear you two from my dorm room. Sounds like you have quite the _animal_ of a team leader."

Jaune grimaced. His Semblance had told him, near the end of his conversation, that someone else; Cardin apparently, was listening in. Unfortunately, it had been well after he had called out Blake as a faunus. Jaune felt absolutely sick. He had tried to help Blake and now he had managed to spill her secret to the worst possible person at Beacon Academy. Jaune knew it was probably a lost cause already, but he couldn't give up. "Please! Cardin, please, don't tell anyone!" he begged.

"Jaune, come on, I'd never rat out a friend like that."

 _Huh? Friends?_ Jaune was suddenly hopeful, if a bit confused. Maybe Cardin wasn't as bad as he seemed.

" _Extortion,"_ his Semblance informed him. " _He is about to ask you to do Dr. Oobleck's essay for him._ " Yeah, that made a lot more sense.

"I'll take care of the extra reading Oobleck gave us," Jaune said with a sigh.

"You're smarter than you look Jauney boy, but I've got a feeling that we're going to be friends for a long time," Cardin said with another smug laugh as he climbed back off the roof. "Don't worry Jaune; her secret is safe with me."

* * *

"Damn it Ruby, stop," Blake growled as she felt hand trying to creep under her bow once more. _This is ridiculous! Why did I listen to Jaune?_

"But they're soooo sooooft!" Ruby whined from the bunk above her. "Please let me touch them again."

Blake looked up from her book and gave her partner a glare. These had not been the reactions she had been expecting from her team when she had pulled off her bow in front of them a few days ago. Pyrrha had been so upset that Blake felt the need to wear a bow in the first place that she nearly went to the headmaster about it. Blake had to force the idea into Pyrrha's far-too-nice head that she didn't want anyone else to know, including said headmaster. Ruby, on the other hand, had an even worse reaction and seemed to think her ears were the cutest darn things she'd ever seen.

In fact, it seemed like the only member of her team that wasn't on board was the teammate who had gotten her to talk about it in the first place. She didn't understand. One day Jaune had been one hundred percent supportive of her and the very next morning he was eating breakfast with Team Cardinal, the loudest group of faunus haters at the school, with a depressed look and zero explanation.

Pyrrha's face had twitched violently between anger and sadness when she'd seen them all together, eventually settling on the latter. Blake had gone through a similar spectrum of emotions, only hers was more towards the former now. Jaune refused to even talk to any of them about why it was he was following that team around. Ruby had been the one trying the hardest on that front. Blake lessened her glare a bit to see if her partner had been having any luck. "Were you able to talk to Jaune after class today?"

"Yeah, but only for a moment or two…" Ruby trailed off sadly. Her partner had been trying to hide it over the past days, but Ruby was clearly not a fan of Jaune's new habit either. Ruby and Jaune had been good friends since the very first day and probably spent more time together than any other members of the team did. Especially with all the effort spent in the workshop during the first few weeks. "Hopefully he'll talk to us on the field trip tomorrow."

"Ruby, it's still Wednesday. We don't go to Forever Fall until the day after tomorrow," Blake corrected.

"Oh, right." Ruby flopped back down on her bed. "I'll try again tomorrow in that case..."

* * *

The next day, Ruby and Jaune sat together in the workshop, busy tinkering with Lignum Mors.

Ruby liked making weapons. She loved the way all the solid metal pieces could move together so fluidly. It actually sent shivers down her spine sometimes and other times uh... well she liked weapons okay. There's nothing wrong with that, right? Everything fit together so cleanly when you planned it all out in advance. You couldn't plan out a conversation like that. Your weapons couldn't lie to you and they certainly didn't run off on you to spend time with a pack of brutes like Jaune had.

"So, where have you been lately?" Ruby asked him, already knowing the answer. Not much had changed since yesterday and Jaune was still spending most of his free time with Cardin and his team. The only time he spent with Team Brandy outside of class was during what were essentially mandatory spars with Blake and Pyrrha or in the workshop with her, working on Lignum Mors.

Jaune hadn't been very enthusiastic about much lately, but Ruby needed to find a way to get him to open up since Blake seemed to be the last person who wanted to talk to him these days and he was always weirdly awkward around Pyrrha. Thinking about how Blake's Gambol Shroud could be used as either a single weapon or dual wielded, Ruby had convinced him to join her in making the latest version of Lignum Mors or Mr. Death Stick, as she liked to call it. Lignum Mors could now be separated in the middle, becoming a pair of weapons that each resembled a bizarre split short sword. The blades could then retract as well, making it compact enough to stow it behind his back like Ruby did with her own Crescent Rose.

"I uh…" Jaune sighed, "I've been busy is all."

Ruby knew she was a nice person, but she wasn't a bottomless pit of positivity. Jaune had been her first real friend at Beacon and now it finally looked like he was leaving her and it didn't feel good. "Busy with your new friends?" she asked with the tiniest hint of scorn in her voice.

"They aren't my friends Ruby."

"Then why are you always hanging out with them?"

"I… I can't answer that." Jaune's scroll rang and he looked down. "Sorry Ruby, I need to take this. I'll talk to you tomorrow," he said, getting up to leave the room.

"That's Cardin, isn't it?" Ruby scowled.

"Yes," he admitted with guilt. "I promise I'm not trying to hurt any of you."

"I hope so Jaune, I hope so," Ruby said to herself sadly as Jaune left the room.

* * *

"Yes students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sight see..."

As Pyrrha and the other first years followed after Professor Goodwitch, she couldn't help but wonder who the hell Professor Peach was and why Pyrrha had never even heard of her before. Several yards behind her, Jaune was carrying a large box along with all of Team Cardinal's sap jars. Between those and his own weapons Jaune seemed close to collapsing under the weight. Pyrrha stared sadly after him as Cardin dragged her blonde crush off into the forest.

"You should go with him." Ruby had snuck up behind Pyrrha, clearly just as worried. "Goodwitch told us to stick with our partners."

"He doesn't seem to want to stick around any of us Ruby." _Least of all me…_

"Please Pyrrha, Blake shuts down whenever I try to get her to talk about it and Jaune already pushed me off yesterday."

"If he won't talk to you or Blake, I doubt he'll talk to me." Pyrrha had started to notice even before this week's issues, that her partner might not like spending time with her all that much. He wasn't rude to her or anything, but he always spoke as little as he could to her during their training sessions and she hadn't gotten to know him nearly as much as she would have liked to. Pyrrha hated it, but she couldn't control how she felt about him, even now.

"Please, it can't hurt to try." Ruby looked up at her with those wide silver eyes and Pyrrha didn't have the heart to say no.

"Alright Ruby, I'll try." Pyrrha started walking slowly off in the direction where the group of five had gone, trying to figure out what she was going to say.

Pyrrha knew she had her issues. Falling for someone that quickly just because they hadn't known whom she was wasn't exactly normal. She'd spent most of her life being told how special she was by everyone she met and any praise had become meaningless within a year or two. Like she had hoped, things had gotten a bit better when she had left Mistral and her team had become some of the first people in years she actually felt close to, but there were still others like Weiss who only wanted to be near her because of what she was, not who she was.

As she spiked a nearby trunk to begin filling up her jar, she was reminded of the last time she had nailed something to a tree.

She hadn't really meant to force Jaune to be her partner, but she hoped he might consider it when she 'helped' with his landing strategy. When she showed up to get her spear back however, Weiss had been right there and clearly wanted to join up with her. That was the last thing she was interested in and Jaune had been the only route of escape so Pyrrha might have panicked a bit and had been a lot more forceful than she intended. Now she was wondering if that hadn't been a mistake. She would still choose Jaune as a partner over someone who acted like Weiss did, but being borderline ignored for so long wasn't turning out to be all that great of a feeling either. It was still loneliness, just of a kind she wasn't used to.

A few minutes later, Pyrrah finished filling up her jar of sap, put the lid back on, and moved closer to where she knew Team Cardinal had gathered. As she drew closer, she could hear the start of a shouting match between Cardin and Jaune.

"No!"

"What do you mean no? Hit that black-haired freak with the sap or I'll tell the rest of my team her little secret and make sure they spread it far and wide when we get back to Beacon!"

Jaune and Cardin were alone on a small ridge overlooking the remainder of Team Silver and Brandy in the distance. The rest of Cardin's team must have gone off to fill their own jars, as they were nowhere to be found.

"I'm done with this Cardin. If you're going to hurt my team anyways, then at least I won't have to be a part of it!" Jaune rose, starting to walk off, leaving the jar of sap behind.

"She's going to hate you when she finds out you're the reason everyone knows what a little pussy she is!" Cardin snarled.

Pyrrha gasped, as understanding slammed into her. Suddenly Jaune's behavior for the last week made sense. Remembering their talk with Blake earlier in the week, Pyrrha knew Cardin could only be insinuating one thing. Not only had Blake told them about her true heritage, but also that Jaune had apparently already known about it for weeks. Somehow, Jaune must have slipped up and told Cardin about Blake's faunus status and Cardin was now holding it over his head.

Pyrrha felt warmth run to her chest, knowing that Jaune had been trying to protect their team leader this whole time. Pyrrha hated to admit it, but she been starting to think her crush was turning into one of Cardin's lackeys. That he didn't care about his team or want to spend time with them, but he hadn't just suddenly abandoned them. He'd been suffering on Blake's behalf the entire time.

She looked back at Jaune to see him shaking in anger at Cardin's vile comment. Jaune looked like he was about to say something, but then slumped his shoulders in defeat and continued to walk off. "I know," he muttered, so low that Pyrrha could barely hear him. Gods, Pyrrha didn't think her heart could take seeing him like this. He was too hard on himself.

Jaune had his back turned away and never noticed Cardin pick up the jar in anger and instead aim it at Jaune's head. Pyrrha rose up to shout a warning as the jar tumbled towards his skull, but she was far too slow.

Jaune caught it in one hand, only inches from his face, after turning around at the last possible second.

 _Wait, what!?_ Pyrrha tilted her head in shock and then crouched back down to watch. Jaune hurled the jar back at Cardin smashing the glass and spattering purple liquid all across his chest plate. "Oh, you've done it now Jauney boy!" Cardin charged in at Jaune with a roar.

Jaune sidestepped and tripped him with barely any effort.

 _What's happening?_ His borderline unnatural reactions weren't unfamiliar, she'd seen them to a lesser extent in her own sparring with him, but it seemed to be slightly more pronounced against the slower Cardin for some reason and Jaune never beat him in combat class. Cardin got up off of the ground and swung at Jaune with a meaty fist, missing again, but then caught him with a powerful uppercut from the other hand. Knocking Jaune off his feet.

"Never mind, this is exactly like combat class," Pyrrha sighed to herself and made to rise up and help, when suddenly a loud roar came from across the clearing.

Ursa. A massive alpha came crashing through the trees straight for Cardin and Jaune.

Pyrrha started to move with even more urgency pulling out her weapons as she did, but then rolled to the side as a large paw crashed down next to her. Two smaller Ursa had snuck up behind her. Pyrrha cursed at herself. How distracted did you need to be for even one Ursa to sneak up on you? She needed to deal with them quickly if she was going to save Jaune.

As Pyrrha engaged the first Ursa, blocking a claw with her shield she saw, in the corner of her eye, Crocea Mors getting knocked out of Jaune's hand. Furious, she cut the Ursa before her in a long slash from shoulder to hip, killing it. As she charged the second Grimm that had now moved to block the path between her and Jaune she could only watch in frustration as the massive Ursa knocked Cardin's mace away. Jaune rushed in front of him, apparently unarmed, to engage the Ursa once more.

 _What are you doing you brave idiot? Get out of there!_ Pyrrha threw her spear at the face of her opponent in desperation. Hoping she wouldn't be too late.

Pulling Miló out of the Ursa's eye socket as it dissolved, Pyrrha quickly jumped past it to dash to Jaune's rescue, only to stop once more at the scene before her. Jaune stood protectively over Cardin, stabbing upwards not with Crocea Mors, but Lignum Mors. He must have kept his second weapon strapped to his back and under his hoodie, in its separated form. Using the bladed staff as a spear, he ran the Ursa through at the chest and pushed it onto its back, climbing on top of its chest as he did so. Jaune pulled the blade out and spun it once, separating the Ursa in two at the neck.

As the Ursa dissolved and Jaune helped Cardin to his feet, Pyrrha turned away with a small smile and headed back to the main group. The rest of the team needed to hear about this.

* * *

Back in their dorm room Ruby cringed as their team leader tore into Jaune.

"That's why you were spending all that time with Cardin?!" Blake demanded, "You are such an idiot! I appreciate what you did, but why the hell didn't you tell us about it?"

"It was my fault he found out."

"Yes, it was your fault for getting me to open up to the rest of the team because that went _so_ badly," Blake said sarcastically. "You clearly forced Cardin to eavesdrop on us, while we were on the top of an empty fucking roof!"

"I should have kept my mouth shut. It wasn't my secret to share," Jaune said in a defeated tone.

"Are you even listening to me?" Blake slapped him. "It wasn't your fault!"

Ruby winced. She wasn't sure what a good leader was supposed to do, but she was pretty sure physically assaulting Jaune wasn't part of it. On the opposite bed to Ruby, Pyrrha was cringing even worse. She didn't seem to have expected this reaction from Blake in the slightest.

"Okay, okay, guys, let's all calm down," Ruby said, jumping up, waving her arms, and shoving herself in between the two. "From what Pyrrha said, it sounds like Cardin isn't even going to talk about it and the rest of his team doesn't even know, right Jaune?"

"I guess, but I doubt he'll feel that way forever." Jaune turned away. "He isn't the most understanding of people. Even if I did save his life."

"Also… I think you do own us an apology," Ruby said hesitantly.

"I'm sorry for betraying your trust Blake."

This time Ruby slapped him. Maybe Blake _did_ have the right idea. "You really aren't listening, are you?" Ruby rushed in to hug the big idiot. "We aren't mad about that, we're mad you didn't talk to us about it! You left us and it hurt. We thought you hated us or something."

Jaune stared down at her for a few moments, and then seemed to finally realize how much of a dummy he was. "Okay Ruby, you win," he conceded, leaning down slightly to return the hug with an arm. "I'm sorry for not telling you all about this in the first place."

"I suppose that's good enough for now," Blake said tersely. "But promise us that next time you'll come to us with a problem instead of running off on your own."

"Right back at you kitty-cat," Jaune said with a knowing smile that Ruby couldn't quite understand.

* * *

AN: This bloody Jaundice/Forever Fall chapter. I do not like the arc it comes from and it was hard to write, so many scenes had to be tossed and started over from scratch. I did what needed to be done plot wise, but I am very glad to be moving on to bigger and better things. The remaining chapters in this volume are much more to my taste.


	5. Chapter 1-5

AN: My inner Barb took over for the first scene and the terrible puns got a bit out of control. You have been warned.

* * *

The Semblances We Keep: Volume One, Chapter Five

* * *

"…Oh the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breath taking!"

Yang rolled her eyes at her partner. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring." Weiss had been gushing about the Vytal festival for days now and had dragged Team Silver off to watch the setup as part of a 'team exercise'. Seriously, the festival was centered on fighting others in the tournament at the end of the day. Yang thought it was just about the best excuse for punching things she'd ever heard of, and now Weiss was trying to ruin that for her.

"Quiet you," Weiss snapped back.

"Ugh, it smells like Port's socks," complained Nora as they approached Vale's dockyard. "Why are we here again?"

Yang stared off at the ocean, wondering why Port's socks smelled like the sea and why Nora even knew what said socks smelled like in the first place. Meanwhile, Weiss made up some excuse about being a representative of Beacon. It sounded pretty _fishy_ in Yang's opinion and she wasn't _shore_ if she believed it.

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament," Ren explained as he uncovered her _Lie_. Yang and Nora nodded in understanding. That sounded a lot more like the Weiss they knew.

"Ah! You can't prove that!" Weiss seemed _crabby_ that her motivations had been revealed as _shellfish_ ones. Maybe she'd _clam_ up and keep her lips _seal_ ed for once. Then again, she might _wave_ it off and keep being a bit of a _beach._

"Oh, Ren! Look at the monkey!" Nora pointed at something in the distance. "Why is he wearing a shirt?"

"That's a faunus, Nora," her partner corrected. "Also, I think 'wearing' is too strong a word in this instance."

Yang looked over to where Nora was pointing. A blonde-haired and blonde-tailed faunus, who seemed to lack a basic understanding of how shirt buttons worked, was hopping off the _Port_ side a nearby ship, guess that explains the scent of Peter's socks, leaving two sailors to stare angrily out after him.

"Thanks for the ride guys!" The boy laughed as he raced away.

"You no-good stow away!" One of the seamen shouted back with plenty of _salt_ in his voice.

"Hey a 'no-good' stowaway would have been caught. I'm a great stowaway." The faunus jumped upwards and performed a half-flip, wrapping his tail around the horizontal part of a lamppost.

"He has a good point there." Yang thought to herself with amusement. His chest wasn't bad either. As she watched him unwrap a banana she had to admit his abs were quite _a-pealing._

"How is his necklace staying on like that when he's upside down?" Nora asked quizzically.

"He clearly doesn't understand the _gravity_ of his situation!" Yang laughed at her own pun as the faunus hopped back down to the pier and two detectives chased after him.

"Oh, he's coming this way!" Nora had a disturbing gleam in her eyes. "Ren, can I break his legs?"

"No, Nora."

Yang could swear she heard sound effects as the faunus passed by and winked at her in slow motion. _Well he certainly has good taste in women._ Yang ran a hand through her hair. "Well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition…and there it goes."

"Quick! We have to observe him!" The white-haired heiress rushed after him through Vale's midday air, following the detectives.

At the next turn, Weiss slammed right into a figure that resulted in the team leader crashing to the street _._ "No, he got away!" Weiss exclaimed as the faunus hopped onto a rooftop in the distance where not a _shingle_ one of them could follow.

"Uuhh, Weiss," Yang said. The heiress looked down.

"Hey there, Snow Angel," said Jaune, somehow looking both smug and awkward simultaneously. "I'm flattered, but can you at least take me to dinner first?"

"Euh!" Weiss scrambled off him in a panic, clearly disturbed by his insinuation, while the rest of Team Brandy pulled Jaune up off the cement.

"Hey sis!" Yang waved at Ruby. "I didn't know you all were coming into Vale today."

"Me and Jaune needed to get some dust for Lignum Mors's new guns and Pyrrha wanted to join us, so Blake decided to just make a team event out of it!" Despite what Ruby had said, Blake didn't appear to be all that happy about being dragged off to Vale, but it seemed to Yang that the team leader was at least pleased with how Ruby had phrased it.

After recovering from her incident with Jaune and exchanging a quiet nod with Blake, Weiss asked the obvious question. "So why aren't you all in a dust shop right now?"

"Well uh..." Ruby gestured to the buildings up the street they had just run past.

"Whoa," Yang said, as she looked at the smashed windows and police tape that made up the front of the dust shop.

"They left all the money again!" One of the detectives near the entrance exclaimed. They must have finished monkeying around with that stow-away. If they stopped chasing him it certainly would have _gibbon_ him a chance to escape.

"It just doesn't make a lick of sense." They heard the other detective say as both teams moved closer. "Who needs that much dust?"

"I dunno, meh ya' know what'ta mean?" The first one drawled. Yang had trouble believing that was a real accent. The other detective lazily waved an arm as he spoke. "You thinking the uh, White Fang?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough," the first replied as the odd pair of detectives moved off into the wrecked store.

"Hmph. The White Fang, what an awful bunch of degenerates." Yang's team leader scoffed.

"What's your problem?" Her sister's team leader asked in an irritated tone.

"My problem!? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."

Jaune groaned loudly, "This is going to be a long day."

Yang shoved her head in between Ruby and Jaune with a wide grin. "Just Xiao-Long do you think it's going to be? Heh? Guys? Do you Schnee what I did there? I have Rose and Rose of these jokes and making up more of them is a piece of Blake."

Yang took a bow.

/-/

Three hours of Weiss and Blake yelling at each other on and off about the respective evils of the White Fang and SDC did nothing to disprove Jaune's prediction. A bored Nora had dragged Ren off somewhere after the first hour and Yang really wished she had gone with them. Following the arguing team leaders, Yang and the remainder of Team Brandy trudged down another large street as evening approached.

"You want to know why I despise the White Fang?!" Weiss shouted. "It's because they're a bunch of liars! Thieves! And murderers!"

Finally, it seemed like Team Brandy's leader had snapped. "Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"

…We?

Blake looked around at both teams in a panic. Pyrrha tried to reach out to her, but Blake quickly dashed off into the streets of Vale. She was already half a block away, when Yang saw Jaune lean down and whisper something about cookies into Ruby's ear...

* * *

Blake was good at running from things.

She ran from her parents when they left the White Fang. She ran from Adam and her old organization when they started killing innocents. All she had ever done in her life was run. As she sprinted faster and further than ever before, Blake thought that the world must have a sick sense of humor to get her stuck with the one thing that even Blake Belladonna, ex-terrorist, agile cat faunus, and shadow clone expert, couldn't run away from.

"Go away, Ruby!"

"Nope!" The small tornado of rose petals said. Her hyperactive speed demon of a partner had been following her for fourteen blocks now.

"I don't want to talk about it! Leave me alone!" Blake shouted, generating two clones and dashing down a side alley to try losing the girl.

"Nope!" Ruby grabbed at the clones, realized Blake's trick, and had caught up with her before Blake could go more than a few feet. _Why does she have to be so damn fast?!_

Forty minutes and dozens of blocks later, Blake collapsed on a park bench in utter exhaustion, feebly trying to knock Ruby's scroll out of her hand as she called the rest of the team.

"Ruby, I think I need a doctor," Blake panted, as her muscles shut down and black filled the edges of her vision.

"Nope!"

* * *

Yang wandered out into Beacon's courtyard in frustration. Her little sister had run off after someone who might be a terrorist and her own partner had dragged Team Silver back to Beacon in a huff. Yang wasn't too worried about her sister. Ruby had just called her an hour ago to let her know that she'd caught up with Blake and that they were fine. Well, Ruby was fine, it sounded like Blake had passed out or something. Jaune and Pyrrha had promised to go after them as well and Ruby could take care of herself.

Still, Yang might have gone after them regardless if it weren't for Weiss. The heiress had kept a very betrayed look on her face all night and Yang didn't trust her enough not to run off and try getting Blake arrested and/or expelled. She'd calmed down a bit, but when Yang had left their room Weiss had still been in a foul mood. Yang knew that the team leaders had been good friends, but that friendship seemed to be pretty questionable at the moment. Yang sighed and stared at the large statues in front of her.

"I knew you'd look better in the moonlight," came a voice.

Yang looked over and saw the faunus 'rapscallion' from the docks hanging upside down from a nearby tree branch. She flicked a hand through her hair. "Meh, I think these golden locks shine better in the day."

"Well then, it might be your lucky night, the name's _Sun_ Wukong," he said, putting emphasis on his first name.

"Yang Xiao-Long," she said with a smile. "Have you been following me hot stuff?"

"Nah, I'm just here for the tournament," he said, unfazed. "I figured I'd come to Vale early and check out the sights."

"Seen anything you like so far?" Yang put hand on her hip and made a pose.

"Hard to tell," Sun said, a little more seriously. "You seemed to be thinking pretty hard just now." He dropped down from the tree. "Maybe I shouldn't hang around."

"I dunno, I think I might feel better with a little more Sun in my life," she said, teasing back. "Come on, we're going back into Vale. I need a drink."

* * *

"I'm not sure if this makes you the best team ever or the worst," Blake said. After regaining consciousness an hour or so later she had found herself in the booth of a small café. Ruby and Jaune sat across from her while Pyrrha, sitting to her right, was blocking her only route of escape. _I can't even fight my way out of this with Nikos here! My team is the worst._

"I'm the bestest teammate ever!" Ruby insisted, munching away on a massive pile of cookies, courtesy of Jaune.

"You chased me until I passed out and then these two dragged me unconscious through the streets," Blake said flatly.

"She did buy you tea." Jaune nodded at the cup in front of her. As if that somehow made up for them essentially kidnapping her.

"Blake, we want to help, but you need to talk to us," Pyrrha said, bringing up the Goliath in the room. "What you said to Weiss back there…What did you mean?"

Blake glanced around to make sure none of the tables nearby were occupied. The rest of her team had heard what she had said to Weiss and had probably come to the correct conclusion already. And yet… they hadn't run off, or even let her do the same. If she was ever going to trust anyone again Team Brandy was her best bet. Not that she had a choice, given Ruby's tenacity. "I was... once a member of the White Fang." Blake took a small drink from her tea to let them process the information.

Pyrrha and Ruby looked concerned still, but not surprised, and waited for her to continue. Jaune spoke up in a neutral voice before she could explain herself. "She was a member for most of her life actually. You could almost say she was born into it, considering her father was the leader up until about five years ago."

Blake sputtered and sprayed tea at Ruby's face.

"H-how did you know that?!" Sure, the fact that Ghira had been the leader of the White Fang was something you could find out if you talked to the right people or looked in the right places, but Jaune didn't seem like the kind of person to know those people and almost no one outside of Menagerie knew that she was even related to Ghira. You didn't exactly use full names in an organization such as the White Fang. Also, Jaune already knew she was ex-White Fang?!

"I told you once that when you shared the other reason you wear that bow that I'd share with you how I already knew what was under it. I think it's fair to say that time has come."

Blake leaned back; waiting in curiosity, glad to have the focus off of her for a bit. Ruby meanwhile, continued to glare at Blake as she wiped tea off her face.

"What do you mean Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

"How come none of you have ever asked me what my Semblance is? Isn't it a bit unusual for someone to enter Beacon without knowing theirs already?"

Pyrrha looked away. Ruby coughed awkwardly. Blake just stared at him flatly.

"Oh come on! I'm not that bad, am I?" Jaune asked incredulously, his confidence shot to pieces.

"It's not that Jaune!" Ruby lied. "You've gotten way better this semester and Cardin hasn't been beating you up in class anymore, now that you're using our baby…" she trailed off awkwardly.

"What she means Jaune, is that not everyone shares their Semblance openly." Blake cut in, saving Ruby from her own ineptness with words. "I don't think any of us know what Pyrrha's Semblance is and she's the best fighter in our year."

"Polarity," Jaune said without a second thought. "She can use magnetism to control metal objects."

"Pyrrha?" Blake looked to the girl who nodded, looking surprised.

"Why did you tell him but not us?" Ruby looked hurt.

"I-I never tell anyone. It always gave me a hidden edge in tournaments. I think only my parents and a few of my old trainers know." Pyrrha looked back at him hopefully. "Have you been watching my old matches?"

"Nope. Never seen them." Pyrrha slumped visibly at Jaune's response. "You aren't the only one to use your Semblance for a hidden edge."

"So you can detect other people's Semblances?" Ruby asked.

"That doesn't even come close to explaining how you knew about my father." Blake looked at Jaune again. "Some kind of mind reading?" That would certainly explain most of the more usual behaviors she'd noticed from him.

Pyrrha suddenly looked _very_ nervous and her face slowly reddened to match her hair. Blake rolled her eyes. Nikos apparently thought her crush on Jaune was somehow still a secret. Between Teams Brandy and Silver, Ruby was probably the only one dense enough to not have noticed yet.

Jaune rubbed the back of his head as he answered Blake. "Not exactly, thank the gods for that." Pyrrha seemed to relax a bit as Jaune continued. "It's a passive Semblance that pops up as a voice in my head. It tells me things someone _could_ figure out on their own, but only in theory. Think of it as very clever deduction skills. Most of the time it just seems like I have unnatural reactions or I know things I really shouldn't."

Blake remembered how she had never once managed to hit Jaune with her first strikes. A thought occurred to her, "Why don't you just trash everyone in our combat class then, if you can predict our attacks?"

Jaune laughed, "If only it worked like that. If you had a voice whispering in your ear in the middle of a fight as to what the other person was going to do. Do you think the voice would even be able to finish a sentence before you were hit? I need some sort of a pause for me to be able to do anything about it."

Blake supposed it was a fair point and it certainly explained his inconsistent combat abilities. Pyrrha was nodding in understanding as well; she'd have noticed something like that long before Blake would have, considering how much more often they trained together, and she was far more versed in recognizing such things. Ruby didn't quite seem convinced though, "Prove it!" she said excitedly. "What's something none of the rest of us know?"

"Are you sure about that?" Jaune asked with a smile, glancing at Blake as she took another sip of tea.

"Yep!"

"Blake, would you care to share what those 'ninja' books you've been reading lately are really about?"

Ruby tilted her head in confusion, just in time to once again be sprayed with Blake's tea.

/-/

"Okay, okay," said Pyrrha, after Ruby stopped attacking Blake while yelling about tea and literary 'filth'. "In the interest of moving past our leader's questionable reading selection, why don't we accept Jaune at his word and talk about what our plan is."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked, trying to lessen the red on her face. _Yes please. I'll talk about anything else to move on from that. Why couldn't Jaune have just kept that to himself? Oh gods, he's probably known I've had those books for weeks by now. I can't run from Ruby, I can't fight past Pyrrha, and I can't hide my secrets from Jaune. I really hate this team._

Pyrrha looked over to Jaune and he took her cue to explain. "Pyrrha and I had a little talk while you were off playing hide and seek with Ruby. Since you seemed so convinced that the White Fang aren't the ones stealing all that dust, we might as well prove it."

"How were you planning to do that?" Blake asked skeptically. Seriously though, they weren't even going to ask her why she left the Fang in the first place? They just went into full help the Blake mode? This team is freakishly trusting.

"The only way to prove they didn't do it, is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there…right?" Jaune asked with misplaced confidence.

Jaune's questionable logic aside, Blake really did want to find answers and she was kind of in charge of the people around her, wasn't she? Although, where would they start? "The problem is, I have no idea where that would be. Where are we even going to get that kind of information?"

Jaune coughed loudly.

Oh…his Semblance…right.

"Let's head back to Beacon for tonight though, we can start our investigation tomorrow." Pyrrha said, "It's getting pretty late and don't think Blake has quite recovered from her escape attempt."

"What are we supposed to say to Team Silver?" Blake wasn't sure that she could face Weiss again. _Will I get arrested as soon as I get back to Beacon?_

"I gave Yang a call while you were out cold," Ruby said, "Weiss hasn't told anyone yet and her team seems to have convinced her you aren't about to blow up the school at least."

"I think it's best if we just keep our distance for now. Besides, it looks like they're having their own problems with faunus," Jaune added, holding up his scroll and showing Blake a picture Nora had just sent them all. It was an image of Team Silver's dorm, where an angry Weiss was yelling at a pair of blondes currently sitting on Yang's bed.

Pyrrha squinted at the picture. "Is that lipstick on his face?"

Ruby looked like she was going to die of embarrassment.

* * *

AN: Sorry Black Sun fans, but the sequence of events was just never going to work out and Team Brandy's nature makes him unnecessary for now. Yang and Sun kept it fairly PG. So please, get your head out of the gutter if it's there. The events will be explained later. Suffice it to say that they both have "Yellow" hair. Make of that what you will.


	6. Chapter 1-6

The Semblances We Keep: Volume One, Chapter Six

* * *

Early the next afternoon, Blake and company took an airship down from Beacon and were now wandering through Vale once more.

"Get anything yet, Mr. Detective?" Ruby asked for the hundredth time today.

"Ruby, I told you already, I'll tell you as soon as I do," Jaune responded with a sigh.

"This isn't working," Blake said. "We've been at this for two hours with nothing to show for it."

"Perhaps we should consider a new strategy," suggested Pyrrha. "We could try splitting up. I don't know if it would help much since we seem to be counting just on Jaune to notice something unusual, but we might as well try."

"I suppose I do know one person in Vale who might be willing to talk about the White Fang," Blake mused. _In the past, Tukson had voiced his reservations about the violent new direction the White Fang was taking. Perhaps he'd consider running away from them like I did._ "Very well, let's pair off. Jaune and Ruby can resume their dust shopping from yesterday and also ask the shopkeeper if he knows about any large dust shipments and Pyrrha, you'll come with me. Everyone good?"

"Actually Blake, why don't you take Ruby with you?" Pyrrha laughed nervously. "After all, she is your partner."

"But Pyrrha, who would go with Jaune then?" Ruby asked, missing Pyrrha's less than subtle intentions.

"Well I guess I could go with Jaune," Pyrrha said hopefully.

"Hahaha, Nah." Ruby snorted obliviously, clearly not believing that anyone else could know anywhere near as much about weapons as she did.

"Come on," Blake said, dragging the disappointed Pyrrha off. "We're going to a bookstore and I know just the book to cheer you up."

Jaune and Ruby disappeared from view as they turned the corner a few moments later and Blake continued. "It's called 'Howling at the Moon', it's about a protagonist who can never reach the object of their affection."

Blake gave her a smirk. "I think you'll like it."

* * *

Ruby was starting to lose hope they'd find any dust for Lignum Mors today. Jaune and Ruby had spent the past hour wandering across Vale, going from dust shop to dust shop, trying to find one that hadn't been recently robbed. It seemed that Roman Tortchwick had been keeping the Vale Police Department very busy.

Jaune had noticed the man's pattern, confirming Ruby's own suspicions, given her last encounter with the thief. His Semblance had clued him in to it after the second dust store they'd found, though they didn't yet know if the White Fang were involved. Ruby had called the other two to fill them in on that bit a while back. Blake had been glad to find that out, as it seemed to back up the idea that it was just a regular string of robberies and not the White Fang.

Pyrrha and Blake didn't seem to be having much luck on their end, but Ruby was pretty sure that was Blake's own fault. Despite how much she might want to find answers, it sounded like Blake had gotten a bit distracted upon entering the bookstore itself and hadn't actually started asking any questions. Ruby liked books and all, but Blake had serious issues with them. Like who would be so obsessed about something that they got that distracted?

"Look Jaune!" Ruby rushed excitedly off to the fourth dust store they had tried. "This one's open!"

"Ruby, look out!" Jaune called out after her. Ruby turned back around, just in time to- Wham!

Never mind. She crashed into something and tumbled to the ground on top of a girl who smelled an awful lot like Crescent Rose after a fresh cleaning. Ruby took another sniff…

"Sal-u-tations! Why are you smelling my neck?"

"I uh…" Ruby blushed. "I was just making sure you were okay."

"By laying on top of her and smelling her?" Jaune asked skeptically as he pulled Ruby up. Thankfully, the girl didn't seem to hear him.

"I'm wonderful!" The girl said in a cheery voice as she continued to lie on the ground. "Thank you for checking! Should I also smell _you_ to ascertain _your_ physical status?" Ruby blushed again.

"I think she's fine, thanks though," Jaune said, glancing at her. "Do you want to get up?"

The girl gave a quick nod. "Yes!" she said, jumping up next to them with a short flip. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" she greeted.

"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."

Penny expectantly looked at Jaune. Jaune suddenly seemed extremely confused by something. He was just staring at Penny with his head tilted and mouth open slightly. Ruby elbowed him. "Oh, I'm Jaune."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" she repeated.

"Ruby, we should probably go into that dust shop now." Jaune shook his head like he was trying to clear out some spider webs from his skull. He started to drag her off by her hood.

"W-well sorry for running into you. Take care friend!" Ruby called out as she was hauled away.

Jaune flinched as they walked off. "Ruby, you really need to be more careful using the F-word around people like her."

Ruby looked at him in confusion as they neared the entrance to the store. "The F-word? I didn't swear Jaune. What are you talking about?"

He sighed. "Just give it a moment."

"You called me friend!" Penny had teleported in front of them somehow. "Am I really your friend?" Penny leaned in close, waiting for answer, and Ruby had to resist the urge to inhale deeply.

"Uummm... " Ruby looked past the strange girl to Jaune. He just rolled his eyes at her as if the current situation was somehow her fault. "Ya, sure! Why not?"

"Sen-sational!" Penny laughed and threw her arms up in joy. "We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" Penny said, gesturing at Jaune.

Jaune coughed awkwardly. "You aren't from Atlas by any chance, are you Penny?"

"Why yes, I am," she said in a chipper tone. "I'm here to fight in the tournament."

"Did you come with the rest of your team?" Ruby asked, looking around. "Didn't any of your friends want to see Vale with you?"

"I don't have a lot of friends," Penny said in a sad voice.

"It's okay Penny, I'm your friend now, remember?" Ruby replied, trying to cheer her up a bit.

"Will Jaune be my friend too?" Penny looked at Ruby's teammate hopefully.

"Sure, why not," he responded flatly. Ruby thought she heard him mutter something about redheads and Semblances, but he was cut off, as Penny got excited all over again at having now made two friends in one day. Ruby wondered if this was how Yang felt about her. Ruby knew she was socially awkward, but not _this_ socially awkward, right?

Eventually, Jaune did manage to extricate himself and they both bid their strange new friend fair well before heading into the store.

"Bye Penny!" Ruby hugged her new friend so that she could sneak in another long smell.

* * *

"Ruby, I wouldn't have a clue what I'd even do with gravity dust. Can we please just keep it simple for now?"

Jaune thought he had known what he was getting into by shopping with Ruby. Nearly an hour later, he was questioning why he'd ever gotten her to make him a new weapon in the first place. Sure he wasn't dead right now, devoured by an Ursa in Forever Fall, but was it really worth it?

Despite her insistence on the 'coolness' of all the various types of dust rounds, he did manage to eventually make it to the store counter with only the most basic ones. The shopkeeper himself wasn't very helpful with their investigation. The balding grey-haired man mostly just mumbled unintelligibly, but it sounded like he didn't know much. Finally, fifty minutes later, they made it back out of the dust shop and out into the darkening Vale sky.

Penny was still outside. She hadn't moved an inch since they had gone into the store.

"Uh Penny, are you lost or something?" Ruby asked.

"No, I was waiting for you!" Penny said with excitement.

 _"Atlas military technology,"_ said his Semblance. _"It is likely she would know about most large movements of SDC products."_

Why his Semblance kept on calling the awkward redhead 'military technology' Jaune had no idea, but he went with the suggestion anyways. "Penny, you wouldn't happen to know about any large quantities of dust lying around Vale, would you?"

"She just got here a few days ago Jaune, why would she-?"

"Certainly friend Jaune!" Penny paused for a moment, staring off into space. "In fact, a very substantial quantity of dust was delivered to the Vale docks approximately two hours and forty-eight minutes ago."

"Wow, Penny! That's great!" Ruby said with excitement. "How did you know that?"

" _Atlas military technology,_ " his Semblance repeated, as if that explained everything.

Penny smiled, looking pleased to have helped her new friends. "Why friend Ruby, the Atlas military database contains all shipping records from Mantle, Schnee Dust Company included."

"Um…Penny," Ruby hesitated. "Why do you have access to the Atlas military database?"

" _Atlas military technology."_ Jaune felt his eye twitch violently.

"S-sorry I think you're confused," Penny hiccupped, suddenly looking nervous.

"Confused about what?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Penny hiccupped again. "I am a normal girl."

" _Atlas military technology."_ Did his Semblance know how to say anything else anymore!?

"Ruby, please…" Jaune rubbed his temples. "Just stop asking her questions."

"Okaaayyy… well, I think we are going to head over to the dockyards then." Ruby started backing away. "Jaune, I think you should call Blake and Pyrrha. They should still be on that side of town. Blake wouldn't leave a bookstore unless someone dragged her out of it."

"Sen-sational!" Penny said with joy, clearly including herself in the 'we'. "That sounds like an excellent field trip!"

/-/

Jaune jogged after Ruby and Penny as they entered the main docking area. "I get how Ruby is so fast," he panted lightly as he ran. "But how the blazes does that other girl not even look slightly winded?"

" _Atlas military technology."_

"You keep saying that and failing to explain a damn thing about it!"

Jaune climbed up a ladder on the side of a warehouse after the pair. At the top, they found Pyrrha looking out at a gathering of masked faunus about fifty meters away. "Where's Blake?" he asked her. Pyrrha pointed down at the girl, who was sneaking towards the White Fang and Roman Tortchwick. _Well that answers that question. Sorry Blake, but they are for sure working together._

"Maybe she just wants to get a little closer so she can hear them," Ruby wondered.

"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?" They heard in the distance.

Damn it Blake. Why the hell did Ozpin even make you the leader if you're going to do crap like this?

"Ruby, Pyrrha, cover us!" Jaune said, leaping down after his oh-so-subtle leader, pulling out Lignum Mors as he did.

"What about me friend Jaune? I'm combat ready!" Penny called out, but Jaune was already gone.

* * *

"Oh for fuck's sake," thought Roman, as some girl with a ninja complex held a katana up to his neck.

"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady." Roman wasn't really up for whatever kind of kinky role-playing this girl had in mind. One crazy girl in his life was enough, thank you very much.

The girl tore something off her head and Roman saw furred ears out of the corner of his eye. "Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?" Great. More animals determined to ruin his plans. At least this one was doing it on purpose.

"Heh, oh kid. Didn't you get the memo? The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture." Roman just needed to buy a little more time…

"Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation," she threatened.

The deafening noise of two more Bullheads gave him the perfect set up. "I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation…" The girl looked up, distracted. Roman fired his cane at the ground knocking the girl back. Roman moved after her before she could recover, preparing to fire at her again.

Shots fired at him from one of the rooftops forced Roman to break off his attack. Roman ducked and looked up at the roof of a warehouse to see a few more figures, one of which he recognized immediately by her outfit alone. _Of course, Red is here too! This is why I'm never having children._ Roman fired up at the rooftop, forcing them to break off in turn. Another teenager rushed up towards him soon after, a tall blonde boy with a bladed staff of some kind. _These bloody kids are multiplying faster than a family of rabbit faunus in Vauco! Does Beacon think I'm running an after school program for troubled youths!?_

"You are not the sharpest knife in the kitten, are ya kid?" Roman teased, as another pair of Bullheads, both full of armed terrorists, came in to hover around them.

"What?" The blonde kid paused in confusion, looking at the dark-haired faunus girl and then flushed with embarrassment. "I haven't put anything inside her!"

Roman pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Beacon wasn't exactly sending it's brightest after him apparently. He waved at the White Fang to attack as they landed beside him.

The boy was definitely from Beacon, given how many of the White Fang he was taking out, but Roman got the feeling he wasn't nearly the threat that faunus girl was. If only Red and her friend on the roof didn't keeping picking those animals off for him. Roman fired another shot at Red, knocking her back. The faunus girl rejoined the fray shortly after, charging at him, swinging her katana and cleaver.

Roman laughed and knocked her down after a rapid, yet brief, exchange. Hunters in training they may be, but Roman was no pushover. He sent half of the faunus after her to make sure she stayed out of the fight for a while. Roman chuckled as three more of his bullheads came into view, targeting the roof with a spray of gunfire and forcing the trio on top to jump to the ground. Red and her crew would need a lot more firepower than that to stop him.

A giant green laser sliced through two of the bullheads, causing them to crash down in a fiery mess.

The White Fang inside had survived the wreckage though, and were drawing swords and guns to join the fray. Most of them attacked Red and the girl with the lasers while the remainder moved off towards the other, taller girl, who looked a lot like someone on the front of those Pumpkin Pete cereal boxes that Neo liked. The White Fang were incompetent at best in Roman's view, but they liked violence and had numbers on their side. This is still salvageable, nothing like good old-fashioned steel to solve his problems.

The metal weapons of the second group were suddenly torn away as if by magic.

 _Welp, lasers and telekinesis, that's my cue to scram._ The idiot blonde kid had finally finished incapacitating the last of the White Fang Roman had sent after him and made to attack the thief again. A few blows from Melodic Cudgel took the brat out the fight long enough for Roman to dash away. The kid wasn't all that terrible, but Red had caused him a lot more problems at that dust shop a few months ago and she was half his size.

Looking back as he boarded a Bullhead, Roman saw the smaller of the two Redheads still tearing through White Fang members with what must have been eight swords at once. "These kids just keep getting weirder," Roman said to himself as the door closed and the aircraft took off.

The Bullhead inexplicably lurched to a stop.

"Now what?!" Roman shouted at the pilot.

"I don't know!" The masked faunus yelled back. "The engines are working, but something's dragging us back down!"

Roman winced as the Bullhead flying next to them was punctured with a series of blades, slowly pulled down by strings attached to the swords, and then slammed into a stack of SDC shipping containers, spilling dust and even more armed extremists across the docks. They'd proved to be about as useless as he'd expected, but at least they would buy him some much-needed time. "Take us down, I'm calling in back up!" Roman brought the number up on his scroll and started a video call.

"…"

"Yeah, yeah, good to see you too. Look, I'm in a tight spot, think you could drop by the docks?"

"…"


	7. Chapter 1-7

The Semblances We Keep: Volume One, Chapter Seven

* * *

Pyrrha had been nervous about going after a terrorist organization initially, but watching their shocked expressions as she tore the Fang's weapons away before they could fire a single shot had been just grand! She had smiled confidently at them and charged into melee range without even bothering to draw her own weapons. She then proceeded to knock the terrorists out with fists and feet, one-by-one in a fantastic display of speed and skill. There were still quite a lot of them running around, but the rest of her team didn't seem to be having any problems handling them.

Pyrrha didn't like all the attention her combat prowess had brought her over the years, but she loved a good fight. It was one of the reasons she made for such a dangerous opponent. For her, training and fighting was like eating and breathing. Each technique and movement practiced a thousand times and a thousand times again, turning her into a paragon of battle. It was no wonder Professor Goodwitch had started putting two or three of Pyrrha's fellow students up against her at the same time. Not that it changed the outcome at all, but the extra challenge was appreciated.

Now she was tearing Roman bloody Torchwick, Vale's most wanted criminal, out of the sky with her bare hands. Pyrrha gritted her teeth, this was probably the largest thing she had ever tried to move with her Semblance and the effort was showing. All in all however, the night was going quite well. She watched as Torchwick's ship was forced to land and the man in question stepped out.

"That's a neat little trick. Mind sharing it with the class?" Torchwick paused as he drew closer, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the invincible girl. What brings the champion of Mistral to this lovely establishment?" he asked, waving a hand at the half-destroyed shipyard.

Pyrrha could probably tear the cane from his grip and end the fight in an instant, but where was the excitement in that? Besides, Roman had smacked Jaune and Blake around a few minutes ago. Pyrrha figured she might as well return the favor. Drawing her weapons at last, she called out, "Stopping you!"

Roman looked irritated at her less than clever response and fired a dust round at her from the end of his cane. Pyrrha glanced the hit off her shield, rolled forward, and threw her spear in response. Roman deflected it with an upward sweep from his cane, sending the spear flying away across the docks. Pyrrha pulled Miló back with her Semblance and shifted it into its sword configuration in the process. She dashed forward, charging the master criminal with a smile. _This is going to be fun!_

/-/

"Had enough yet, Tortchwick?" Pyrrha panted after a few minutes. He was certainly a lot tougher than any of the first years at Beacon, with the only possible exception being Yang.

Still, Yang didn't win her fights with Pyrrha, and Tortchwick wasn't about to either. He picked himself up off the ground, actually needing to lean on his cane, wiped a bit of blood from his brow, and adjusted his bowler hat. After Pyrrha had taken out his aura, she had bashed her shield into his head, hoping to knock him unconscious. It had left a telling bruise above his right eye, but Roman was still up and walking, if barely. "You know kid, I think I have had enough," he said with an exhausted, but satisfied smirk. "How about my lovely assistant takes over?"

His what?

Pyrrha felt a flash of pain across her back as something drained her aura. She ignored the pain and rolled out of the way as a small blade once more slashed at her. She looked behind her to see a short girl with pink and brown hair, who smiled up at her and tried to stab her eyes out with a parasol.

"I thought I might introduce you to my dear little friend," Roman slurred from a few meters away. "Neo doesn't talk much, but she does love violence."

 _Okay, this is getting to be a bit too much. My aura is low and if she's anything like Torchwick I could be in trouble here._ Getting serious, Pyrrha flicked her arms out, tearing her opponents' weapons away.

Tortchwick was left unbalanced and nearly fell over. Cursing, he went stumbling after his cane. The little girl, on the other hand, simply vanished reappearing a few moments later next to her own weapon and then smiled at her. Pyrrha held an arm out to remove Neo's weapon again, but something was wrong this time. Her Semblance was acting like the metal wasn't actually there.

Pyrrha gasped in pain as a blade pierced a few inches into her stomach.

Neo had reappeared inside of her guard. The small woman pulled the blade out with a twisted smile and Pyrrha fell to the ground doubling over in pain, one hand pressed to her wound. Neo raised the blade to Pyrrha's neck, grinning at her suffering.

"Get away from her!" She heard Jaune yell. He was charging straight for the tiny psychopath.

"No!" Pyrrha gasped. _Stay away Jaune, please._

Neo bent casually to the side, letting his weapon pass harmlessly by and then parried back at him, quickly forcing him to go on the defensive. Jaune managed to hold his own for a dozen seconds or so, but was clearly struggling against his superior and more acrobatic opponent. Pyrrha could tell this fight was going to be over a lot faster than her fight against Torchwick was. It looked as though Jaune had managed to get a lucky hit in for a moment, but the illusion crumbled into glass on impact, making it clear he never had a chance. Neo reappeared behind Jaune a few seconds later and stabbed at his exposed back.

Pyrrha's eyes widened in fear as Neo lunged forward.

She needn't have worried, Jaune was already moving. Spinning Lignum Mors behind him, he blocked the attack without turning around. Frustrated, the girl moved back in front of him with the same trick. Jaune blocked that blow as well, though it was a clumsy save at best.

He won't be able to keep doing that. Please Jaune you have to get out of here!

Neo continued to rapidly slash at Jaune. She seemed to have realized that a direct attack would end the fight faster. She scored a slash on his wrist causing him to drop Lignum Mors with a gasp of pain. Neo lunged forward hacking at his body twice and forcing him away from his weapon, then kicked him several times in the face and chest while performing a backflip, he was knocked down a few meters away from Pyrrha. His aura flickered and died. Neo moved forward with a thin smile.

 _No, please!_ Pyrrha could feel the tears in her eyes.

"Hey!" A single, loud shot of sniper-fire rang out in the night, forcing Neo back. Ruby had come to their rescue, leaving the remainder of the White Fang grunts to Penny and Blake. Although, it looked as though Blake had noticed what had happened as well and was starting to move in their direction as fast as she could.

Roman rushed up beside Neo, having recovered his weapon. "Come on Neo, let's blow this joint!"

Ruby speed forward to lunge at the pair a few moments later, shattering the illusion into a pile of glass with her scythe. In the distance, Pyrrha saw the Bullhead take off once more. She reached a hand up to try stopping it, but with no aura, no energy, and a trickle of blood flowing out of the small wound in her abdomen, she wasn't even able to slow it down.

 _Maybe that's for the best. I don't think any of us could beat someone like that right now._ For the first time in her life, Pyrrha felt completely outclassed. Her trump card of a Semblance hadn't even fazed Neo. _I wasn't even able to last as long against her as Jaune did. How sad is that?_

As Jaune rushed up and tore off his sweater to stop her bleeding, Pyrrha could hear sirens in the distance. She sighed with relief and allowed herself a pained smile. "Looks like I'm not so invincible after all," she tried joking to her partner.

Jaune smiled back down at her. "You're still here, aren't you?"

* * *

Blake watched as the ambulance took Pyrrha away, the paramedics had assured them that she was at almost no risk of permanent damage. The rest of her team was uninjured, though a bit worse for wear. Sitting with Jaune and Ruby on a pile of crates, she started to ask her partner about the strange orange-haired girl sitting next to them, but as Team Silver approached, Blake realized she had bigger problems.

Ruby rushed forward to try intercepting the heiress as Blake stood up. "Look Weiss it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. You see she doesn't actually wear a bow…" Blake tilted her head in confusion. _What are you talking about Ruby? I'm literally wearing my bow right now._ "…She has kitty ears and they're actually kinda cute," Ruby finished. Blake felt said 'kitty ears' flatten slightly in irritation beneath her bow. _I swear Ruby, if you try petting me again…_

Weiss shoved past Ruby and walked up to Blake. _This doesn't look good._ Blake started to say something, but Jaune grabbed her wrist for a brief moment before she could. "Just…let her talk first," he said with a tired smile.

"Do you know what I've had to deal with the last twenty-four hours?" Weiss asked Blake in a scornful voice. "When Ruby ran off after you, do you have any idea how Yang decided to cope with it? She went out. Got drunk! And came back to our _shared_ dorm room to suck face with some riff-raff from Vacuo!"

"Technically he's from Haven," Yang put in.

"Quiet you! I'd always thought Ren and Nora would be the ones I'd have to prevent from violating the sanctity of our quarters, not my own partner!" Yang looked away, cowed. Nora mumbled something in the background about her and Ren not actually being 'together-together'.

Weiss turned back to Blake. "As I was saying, in that last twenty-four hours, I've decided, I don't care! While we might not always agree with each other, I consider you to be a close friend…" Weiss glanced briefly at the people around them and then sighed as if disappointed in her other options. "Make that best friend actually, and I _don't_ want to lose that. According to your team you're not with the White Fang anymore, right?"

"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-"

"Upupupupup! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up you'll come to me and not some…" Weiss trailed off looking around. "Wait. Where did that girl go?"

"Penny?!" Ruby looked around as well. "She was right next to me a second ago!"

"She'll be back in a few weeks." Jaune said with a sigh, rubbing his forehead. "Can we please just get the group hug over with and go back to Beacon?"

"The group what!?" Weiss asked incredulously. "I will do no such-"

Nora crashed into her from behind, slamming Weiss into Blake. "Get over here Renny, its group hug time!"

"Sure, why not," Ren said, with all the enthusiasm of a sloth.

/-/

An hour after they returned to Beacon, Blake was called into a small room to explain her team's actions. She'd gotten some less than positive words directed at her from the headmaster, due to what had happened to Pyrrha, but not nearly as much as was probably deserved. Something which Blake found to be rather discomforting if she was being honest. Ozpin apparently already knew she was a faunus as well it turns out, so that was interesting. He looked intently at her from across the metal table as he finished their conversation. "…Are you sure there is nothing else you would like to tell me?"

There wasn't, not unless she felt like getting arrested. "I'm sure."

"Very well." Ozpin picked up his cane and made to leave. "If you ever need to talk to me, please don't hesitate to ask."

"Actually sir," There was one question that had been in the back of her mind for a while now. "Why me?"

Ozpin sat back down and looked at her. "I'm afraid you'll need to be a bit more specific."

"Why was I made the leader?" Blake was a little worried about accusing the headmaster of laziness, but her curiosity outweighed it. "Was it just because of the name?"

Ozpin gave an amused smirk at that. "The name was chosen for the leader Miss Belladonna, not the other way around. If I wanted Mr. Arc to be sitting where you are right now, you would have found yourself on Team Auburn, if I wanted Miss Rose to be here instead, she would be leading Team Rainbow, and if I wanted Miss Nikos to be the leader…" Ozpin paused in thought. "Well, I actually never considered her for the position in the first place."

"Shouldn't she have been the obvious choice?" Pyrrha was by far the strongest fighter and certainly had a decent tactical mind.

"I have feeling she would have greatly despised such a role and it would have gone poorly as a result. You, on the other hand, seem only vaguely uncomfortable with it. Let me ask you this, why do you think I made Miss Schnee the leader of her team? You seem to have gotten to know her fairly well, so you must have some idea."

That question was easy to answer at least. "She's responsible sir."

"And the other members of Team Silver are not?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Well Nora certainly wasn't. Yang could be if she tried, but it would probably be seventy-five percent of the time at best. Ren seemed responsible, though it was hard to tell with how little he spoke. Blake imagined what a team lead by him would have been like. She doubted they'd have made it to class on time that first day, given how passive he was. She could see the headmaster's point now.

"You chose her because she was responsible, determined, and proactive. You needed someone as strong as her for a team that…" Blake trailed off, not wanting to insult Yang or Nora.

"Loud is one word that would be acceptable." The headmaster gave a small smile. "You are quite right though. Now, what of your team? While Team Silver is no less capable in the field than yours, someone like Miss Schnee was hardly needed, were they? Mr. Ren or Miss Xiao-Long could have been the leader of your team quite easily."

It still didn't explain why Ozpin had picked her. If her team was so much easier to lead, why did it even matter who it was? "Why not Jaune then?"

Ozpin leaned forward with slight interest. "Tell me Blake, has he made any decisions that might have caused him harm, which could have been better dealt with if another member of your team or even your team as a whole had tried instead?"

Blake herself wasn't perfect in that regard, but she only ran off because she had revealed herself as a full-blown terrorist. Jaune had taken it to another level. He had spent a whole week suffering under Cardin and for some reason never once thought to fill Blake in on it, even when it was directly about her. Now that she thought about it, why was Jaune the first one to join her in attacking Torchwick? Pyrrha shouldn't have stayed up on the rooftop just because she had a rifle. She was worth far more as an up-close fighter. "Some things like that may have occurred. Why?"

"I have reason to suspect he has certain fears, fears which would leave him incapable of making some of the decisions needed if he were to lead those close to him. Of which his team would inevitability become a part of." Ozpin leaned back a bit. "Why have you not asked about Miss Rose however? She was the one who took the lead during the finale of initiation after all."

Despite what Weiss believed, what the headmaster said was true. Weiss had been unconscious at the time and had just assumed that Blake had been the one to lead her team and, given her current status as such, it was the logical conclusion. In truth, Ruby had been the one who had come up with the plan that left the giant Nevermore sans its head. "I figured it was because of her age."

"Age has nothing to do with it either. From what her teachers at Signal have told me, Ruby is the sort of girl that will always try her hardest to have everyone work together, which was reinforced at initiation. I would have picked her if I thought your team might have difficulties supporting one another or perhaps differing viewpoints when you first met." Ozpin tilted his head forward slightly and gave her a look over his spectacles. "Does that describe Team Brandy?"

It most certainly did not. It was almost bizarre how quickly the rest of her team had moved past the fact she had been a member of the White Fang. The only other issue they'd had was perhaps Jaune going off on his own while trying to protect her. Jaune had hidden her secrets for months, Ruby "Noped!" her way into not letting Blake run away, and Pyrrha had even gotten stabbed for her. In the end, it was actually kind of dumb how blindly supportive her entire team was.

It didn't give her the answer she was looking for though. "I'm sorry sir, I've still not a clue why you chose me." Blake felt like she had failed some sort of test.

Ozpin didn't seem to mind. "Your team didn't need any of the things the others might have to offer, were they in your position. They, and most of the other students here, lack something else that you alone possess." Ozpin tilted his mug to his mouth for a moment before continuing. "During my initial speech to you this year, I said that your classmates were in need of something, do you recall what that was?"

"It was a long time ago. I'm afraid I can't remember it very well," Blake lied. She was too embarrassed to admit she had already started reading by that point in the night and hadn't listened to a word of it.

"It is the reason I believe you came to my school in the first place, the reason I hear a certain avian team seems to be terrified of going anywhere near you or your friends, and the reason I suspect that your team was at the docks this very night."

"Purpose," Ozpin stated as he rose up to leave the room. "I believe you have a purpose set for yourself already Miss Belladonna, and one that is most worthy of a huntress. I think you will find that you are blessed to be the leader of team that is not only strong enough for it, but would gladly make this purpose their own, should you chose it."

Blake stared at the door as it closed behind the headmaster.

* * *

"Blake said you wanted to see me Professor?" Jaune asked, as he entered the headmaster's office. The late afternoon sunlight streamed in through the large windows.

"Yes, I was hoping you could fill me in on some of the details of what transpired last night." Ozpin gestured to a chair in front of his desk.

Jaune sat down across from the headmaster. "Didn't my leader already do that yesterday sir?"

"She did, but I was hoping to get a second opinion." Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "Tell me Mr. Arc, how did you all know the White Fang would be at the shipyard last night?"

" _There are two potential reasons for that question."_ Jaune's Semblance informed. " _Ozpin either suspects Blake is a former member of the White Fang or he can hazard a loose guess at what your Semblance is."_

The fact that his Semblance wasn't able to draw a full conclusion from the headmaster was nothing new to Jaune. While his Semblance used to have a crush on Blake, it was nothing short of a creepy infatuation with the headmaster. However, it seemed that Ozpin was partially immune to its effects. All he had been able to understand about it so far was that Ozpin just didn't act like others did. He either had so many secrets buried inside each other that his Semblance was left confused or he was just so good at lying that even Jaune's gift couldn't make any headway. It was most likely both, he had never come across anyone so adept at foiling his Semblance.

"Lucky guess," he replied, after some thought. Better for Ozpin to figure out Jaune's ability than to learn of Blake's questionable past.

"Miss Belladonna gave much the same answer. Curious." Ozpin seemed to be taking the bait. "As you know, in order to enroll at my academy, students must first pass a rigorous entrance exam. Your father claimed to have trained you for years in preparation before you arrived at Beacon."

Ozpin took a long sip from his mug. "However, I have it on good authority that you unlocked your aura only a few months before initiation. Tell me Mr. Arc, why is it that the Ansel sheriff spoke so highly of you? I was under the impression that people exiled from a town do not normally get a shining letter of recommendation from the man responsible for enforcing the sentence."

Jaune glared flatly at the man across from him. "Just because someone upholds the law doesn't mean they agree with it." Jaune was not at all pleased with this particular line of discussion. "There's a reason those records were sealed. I'm sorry headmaster, but I'm not going to share that tale with you either."

Ozpin took the rebuff a lot better than Jaune had expected. "Very well Mr. Arc, I am proud to run a school that accepts individuals from all walks of life. I shall not waste any more of your time."

Ozpin took another sip of coffee. "You should be glad to learn that Miss Nikos is making a speedy recovery in the infirmary. There's not much school work left before break commences and considering that it is nearly evening, I expect she would quite look forward to a visit from her partner." Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Despite how you acted in her defense at the docks last night, I hear you are the only member of Team Brandy who has yet to pay her a visit."

"Of course sir." He'd put that off as long as he could it seemed.

* * *

Pyrrha looked up as Jaune entered the long, white-walled, infirmary. Passing by the first few empty beds and approaching her, he sat down in the chair next to where she lay.

"Hey there Pyrrha," Jaune started awkwardly. "How are you feeling?"

"Better Jaune, thank you." Pyrrha pushed herself up a bit. "I never got to thank you for saving me at the docks."

"It's was nothing, it's what any teammate would do…" he trailed off.

"And thanks for coming here Jaune. It's…good to see you." Left unsaid was the fact that her own partner hadn't even come to visit her until after the rest of Team Brandy and even Team Silver had come and gone. Even now, Ruby was bringing her back some dinner from the cafeteria. Both of Pyrrha's other teammates had been visibly irritated about how Jaune had been avoiding his injured partner over the last twenty hours.

Pyrrha had been thinking about it ever since Jaune had explained his Semblance a few days ago. She spoke up quietly to learn the truth. "You've known since initiation, haven't you?"

"Known what?" Jaune asked, clearly feigning ignorance. Pyrrha knew this was going to hurt her more than even that mute girl's blade, but she had to know.

"How I feel about you," Pyrrha began with a tentative whisper. "All that time you spent in the first few weeks trying to avoid me. You turned me down over and over again for sparing sessions, even when you clearly needed the help. I can see now that wasn't just you being stubborn. Even after you stopped avoiding me, even when Blake made you train with me, you still kept me at arms length. You spend more of your free time with Ruby and Blake than your actual partner. Am I really that repulsive to you?" Pyrrha could feel the tears fighting to come out, but she kept them down.

Why was she even surprised that the one person she actually wanted attention from, was the only person, out of all those she'd met, that just wasn't interested in her? It seemed to be her self-inflicted curse. Blessed to have everything someone else should want and yet still not have something so simple as happiness.

"You are one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen Pyrrha." Jaune looked down at his feet.

"Then what's wrong with me? Does my personality offend you?" Pyrrha said with a little more anger. Normally, she would have flushed madly at his comment, but she was too upset to notice. "Do I need to be mysterious and brooding like Blake? Should I run around in a little red hood and act like a child? Or maybe, if I bleached my hair white and treated you like dirt, you'd have even asked me out!" Pyrrha didn't mean those words, but it felt good to watch Jaune flinch away. She wanted him to see just how much pain she was in.

"You are probably the nicest, most kind-hearted girl at this school." Jaune looked back at her. "You have so much fame and yet you spend every second of the day trying to blend in and help others. I'd be an idiot not to see that any guy would be lucky to even be around you."

"Then why? Why didn't you say anything when you knew how I felt? What is it about me that makes you so adverse to a relationship?!" Pyrrha demanded.

"It was never your fault!" He calmed down a bit and continued. "How could I take advantage of you? Knowing exactly how you felt, knowing how I didn't feel the same. I care about you Pyrrha, the same way I care about the rest of our team. Maybe even more than that, despite what you think, despite how I acted, but you…You had much stronger feelings for me even in the very first week of school. How was I supposed to feel about that?"

"You didn't need to feel anything Jaune, you just needed to give me a chance! I don't need you to feel the same way right now, I just wanted to spend time with you and try-" Pyrrha froze, as Jaune leaned forward, placed a hand on the nape of her neck, and pressed his lips to hers.

Pyrrha thought she heard something drop in the distance. It was probably her brain shutting down. Jaune pulled away quickly and coughed in embarrassment. "S-sorry, there was probably a better way to do that."

"Jaune?" Pyrrha was pretty sure she was still suffering from blood loss. No way that had just happened, right?

"You're…you're right Pyrrha, and I shouldn't have treated you the way I did. I think I realized that when I saw you bleeding out on the docks. I'm sorry for making you wait for so long. I didn't want to play with your feelings and yet I ended up doing just that by doing nothing about them at all. I like you Pyrrha, I promise you I do; maybe I just need a little more time to feel as strong about this as you. You don't really know me either and I can't promise you'll like it, but if you'll still have me, I'd like to let you find that out for yourself this time."

He didn't kiss her again, but moved closer and rested a hand on her bed. She put her hand in his and he didn't try to pull away. "I can live with that," she said, smiling.

She never noticed the little girl in a red hood, flying away from the entrance of the infirmary, practically squealing in excitement. Pyrrha's dinner was left on the floor, completely forgotten.

* * *

End Volume One.

* * *

AN: Thank you for reading the first volume.

I mean come on. Did you really think a non-oblivious Jaune wouldn't turn out this way? At least it only took him one volume to stop being a dumbass, instead of three.

This doesn't mean its going to be happily ever after or anything. Humor aside, a war is going on and stuff is going to get a little more complicated. I mean Pyrrha got stabbed already and that in itself can't be ignored. Things are by no means going to be perfect in Team Brandy and Ozpin only gave a partial answer to that leadership question people keep bugging me about. In addition to wanting to focus on the team aspect and have more angles for comedy, there are other reasons I'm not writing from Jaune's point of view all that often. It would force me to give his backstory away far too early and I've already danced around it enough as is. His Semblance also is so expository that it ruins suspense quite effectively.

Hope you enjoyed the story so far and I'm very much looking forward to reading your theories. Especially the wrong ones, those are way more fun. Please do drop a review if you feel so inclined, I read them all and its the reason I even bother publishing in the first place. I'd probably write the story either way, but seeing that others are interested as well is what makes me want to continue sharing it. I'll try to keep putting updates on my bio as to how volumes 2 and 3 are going. They might be quite a while unfortunately. They are a tad more ambitious and I want to flesh out the story a bit more now that the ball is rolling. Hopefully the trade off in time will be worth it.


	8. Chapter 2-1

AN: I'm back! Kind of, at least. In the interest of getting past my writer's block on chapters three and four, I'm putting out chapters one and two. I expect I'll put out chapter two about a week after this one.

* * *

The Semblances We Keep: Volume Two, Chapter One

* * *

Vale's bright sun shone down on Jaune and Pyrrha as they walked out of one of the few ice cream parlors that was not currently under investigation by the Vale Bureau of Health, for serving a multicolored desert that apparently was mislabeled as 'definitely not poison'. The couple once again missed the little huntress in training who was currently spying on them from a comic book shop across the street.

"Eeeek!" Ruby couldn't help it. They were just too cute together! Ruby dragged Yang out of the store and along the streets of Vale on her super secret spy mission: Operation Arkos.

"Ruby, since we got back from Patch this morning, all you've done is follow them around on their date," her sister complained. "They've only been together for three weeks. Why are you so set on this?"

Ruby wasn't sure how Yang had known about Jaune and Pyrrha. The couple was keeping a pretty low profile and hadn't told anyone yet. Actually, considering that school wasn't starting back up for another day or two, Ruby was surprised how it seemed that everyone at Beacon already knew about it. Ruby thought she had been the only person to see them together before break began and she hadn't told a soul before she left…

…except for Blake…

…and Nora…

…and Coco…

…and that guy who flew the airship between Beacon and Vale…

…and Yang.

Ruby shrugged, some mysteries could never be solved.

Speaking of mysteries…

"Penny?!" Ruby thought she had spotted a patch of bright orange hair in the distance. The girl in question turned automatically upon hearing her name, confirming Ruby's suspicions. Penny froze, then turned back around and began to walk quickly away. Something inside of Ruby felt very hurt at the girl's reaction, but she wasn't about to give up that easy.

"Hey, wait up!" Ruby dashed off after her strange friend, leaving Yang in the dust. As Penny reached the corner of the block, two figures walked around it from the other direction. Penny accidentally knocked over the first one, a tall boy with silver hair, and kept on running. Ruby tried to avoid the other figure, a dark skinned girl with light green hair, but the girl seemed to stumble into Ruby's path and they both fell down. Ruby wanted to apologize, but she couldn't afford to lose sight of Penny. She scrambled to her feet and raced away, not noticing her suddenly lighter pockets…

* * *

"Ruby!" Yang called after her little sister in frustration. Her sister and that girl from the docks had just rudely knocked over a couple of people around Yang's age. The two socially inept girls had then ignored the pair of teens and kept on running. Yang helped the boy up and noticed Ruby's wallet in the hands of the girl. _C'mon Ruby, this is why you should get something other than a combat skirt._

"So sorry about that." Yang grabbed the lien out of the other's hand. "And thanks for picking up her wallet." Yang wanted to say more, but Ruby was fast and if Yang didn't move on she'd never catch her. Yang made to rush off after her sister, but a hand caught her arm before she could move more than a few feet. Yang spun around to see a beat cop standing behind her, he didn't look happy.

"Pickpocketing isn't a very good pastime young lady," the officer said to Yang.

 _Pickpocketing? What?_ Yang looked down at the wallet in her hand and then back up at the dark-skinned girl she had just taken it from. The red-eyed girl looked equally confused. "Wait, her?!" the girl pointed at Yang. The officer seemed to think Yang had just stolen Ruby's wallet from the girl in the revealing white outfit.

"No! This is my sister's wallet! See!" Yang pulled out both her and her sister's IDs and turned them to face the officer. The policeman stared at them skeptically, then crossed his arms and glared back at her. He didn't seem to believe her. Yang turned the cards around to look at them herself _. Maybe one of the IDs is damaged or expired?_

 **Rose, Ruby; Hair: Black/Red; Eyes: Silver; Height: 5' 2"**

 **Xiao-Long, Yang; Hair: Blonde; Eyes: Lilac; Height: 5' 8"**

Oh yeah, the whole half-sisters thing. Their names, pictures, and descriptions looked absolutely nothing like each other. This might take a while to sort out…

/-/

The irritated cop moved away after the situation had been explained and he had filed a report. As he left the area, Mercury, as Yang knew now, burst out laughing. The other one, Emerald, elbowed him harshly. He couldn't stop laughing though, "It's just… he thought you" Mercury pointed at Yang as he bent in laughter "were the thief…that's rich!"

"What? Am I not dangerous enough for you?" Yang challenged. _Surely I don't look all that innocent._

"I think it's the whole outfit you've got going on," Emerald said, waving a hand at Yang's body. "Doesn't exactly scream subtle."

"Yeah, sure," Mercury chuckled. "Let's go with that."

"Well it was nice to meet you, I think?" Yang said and waved at them as she stepped off the curb, "I'm afraid I've got to after my sister though." The couple waved cheerily back. Yang missed Emerald's eye-roll and muttered insult as she turned around. Yang made sure to check for her own scroll and wallet before going too far. If the cops thought thieves were in the area it paid to be careful. Not like those two love birds were criminals though, the policeman had just given them directions to some bookstore.

"What a bunch of nerds," Yang chuckled to herself and wandered in the direction Ruby had gone. There wasn't much use in running now. Her sister was far away by this point. Yang didn't have to walk far however, and before she even considered calling Ruby on her scroll, the hooded girl came strolling back around the next corner.

Ruby had a confused, but pleased, expression on her face and hadn't even noticed her big sister. Yang tilted her head at the odd look Ruby was wearing. "Remnant to Ruby." She waved a hand in front of Ruby's face. "You okay there?"

"Huh?" Ruby looked up. "Oh hi Yang, where'd you go?"

"Me? You're the one that ran off!" Ruby _really_ wasn't a people person. "Did you find that Penny girl?"

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered, a smile on her face. "She said she wasn't supposed to talk to me!"

Yang raised an eyebrow. Her sister had _serious_ people issues. "And that makes you happy why exactly?"

"I got her scroll number so I can text her," Ruby explained. "I told her it didn't really count as talking that way."

Yang shook her head in amusement. "Flawless logic as always, Ruby." Ruby sure seemed ecstatic about getting her friend's number. It was pretty unusual to see Ruby this happy about social interactions, but it was good to see her making friends with normal girls. Well, Penny wasn't all that normal from what Yang had seen, but at least she was human.

* * *

Neptune listened closely to his partner talk about what he'd been doing in Vale as they walked along the wide, bush-lined, pathway on the side of Beacon's cafeteria.

"So then, we went to this club in Vale and when she walked in all these guys with black suits and matching red sunglasses started attacking us for some reason. We messed them up and then partied in the wrecked club," Sun went on in an animated voice. "It sounds trashy, but it was Awesome!"

"Nice." Neptune nodded.

"Right!? And the best part is, she's a blonde!"

"That's…the best part?" Neptune stared at his moron of a partner. "You spent a night out talking, partying, and fighting goons with this girl, and the best part about her was her hair?"

"Well yeah man, we both have the same hair color. It's Awesome!" Sun said excitedly.

"Dude, that's like if I only liked a girl because she had blue hair. She took you back to her freaking room and made out with you! Isn't there anything else you liked? Like her personality or sense of humor?" Neptune asked.

"She was pretty funny and I did have a blast spending time with her." Sun looked confused. "I don't see what the big deal is though."

"Dude, what if I told you you should go out with someone just because they were a faunus? That'd be profiling and borderline racist, right?"

"Aw, man." Sun looked ashamed. "When you say it like that it makes me sound really shallow." He pointed a finger at Neptune. "You can't tell Yang I said that!"

"Whoa, chill out man okay, I got it." _Did Sun not know that bros came first?_ "I got it."

"You better. I just don't wanna screw this up, the people here are the coolest! No offense to you guys."

"None taken." Neptune was confident in his own awesomeness.

"Okay, they're just in here." Sun gestured at the double doors. "I'm really excited for you to meet them. So be cool okay? You're gonna be cool, right?"

"Dude." His friend was such an idiot sometimes. _Could he not see how much I rock this outfit?_ Neptune gave Sun a charming smile.

Sun gave him a once over. "Good point." Sun then turned and threw open one of the doors to Beacon's cafeteria. His friend was immediately forced to duck under a flying lemon meringue pie.

"Food fight!" someone yelled loudly. As students rushed out of the room past them, Neptune was greeted to a scene of utter chaos.

All but eight students had fled, and the remainder seemed to be locked in violent culinary combat. A short redhead was swinging a watermelon on a pole at some tall blonde kid, eventually knocking him into the back wall, a pair of black-haired students were dueling it out with bread and celery sticks, someone who was clearly the Yang girl Sun had been telling him about was fighting against Pyrrha Nikos, whom Neptune recognized immediately from their classes together back at Sanctum, and finally, a red tornado of food seemed to be flying at a petite girl wielding a swordfish. The latter figure was sent flying backwards by the barrage and crashed into a nearby pillar.

Neptune decided he probably shouldn't let her be crushed by the massive stone pieces that were falling down after her. He jump over and upward to carry her out of the way. "Hey there Snow Angel, the name's Neptune," he smiled down at her as they landed on the floor.

"H-hi. I'm Weiss." The pale girl blushed slightly and looked away. Neptune had that effect on a lot of women. Well, in his opinion at least.

* * *

"Oh look, she sent the kids again." Emerald shuddered as Roman wrapped his arms around her and Merc. "This is turning out just like the divorce."

The idea that Roman had even the slightest chance with Cinder was repugnant. "Spare us the thought of you procreating."

"That was a joke." Roman released them and the scent of expensive cigars thankfully faded. "And this," Roman held up the address to Tukson's Book Trade, "Just might tell me where you two have been all day."

Emerald grabbed at her pockets in confusion. Mercury snickered at her perplexity, "That's twice in one day now."

"Twice?" Roman glanced back in amusement. "How embarrassing, the street rat is the one who keeps getting robbed."

"And the first time wasn't even on purpose..." Mercury may not be any more of a fan of Roman than Emerald was, but he was clearly enjoying the chance to irritate her further. Emerald growled as Roman laughed at Mercury's re-telling of the day's events. "...and then she tried to convince the cop that the little hooded girl was her sister."

"Hooded?" Torchwick paused. "Was the hood red by any chance?"

"How did you-" Emerald started.

Roman took her reaction as confirmation and cut her off. "You're telling me that you ran into Red, someone who claims to be her sister, and a cop all within an hour of killing Tukson?"

Well, the cop part probably wasn't ideal, but why the interest in the other two? "Who's Red?"

An echoing and seductively powerful female voice came from above them, "Yes Roman, do tell..."

* * *

A few weeks after the incident at the cafeteria, Jaune found himself cornered by Nora just outside of Dr. Oobleck's classroom. She was back to bug him about his Semblance. This was not the first time she had done this. It wasn't even the third.

"Nora, I told you this already, I can't read minds," Jaune said. "Ren, please get her off me."

He was really starting to regret filling Team Silver in on the way back from the docks last semester. While Jaune didn't guard that secret as closely as Blake did hers, he still didn't want everyone at Beacon to know and he'd asked that they keep it to themselves. He didn't want it becoming common knowledge. Nora was a prime example of why that could be a bad thing.

"C'mon Jaune, just guess what I'm thinking!" No one had _ever_ accused Nora of being a quitter. "Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!"

Jaune let out a sigh. "Is it pancakes?"

Nora gasped in shock and put her hands to her cheeks. "How did you know?!"

"You were thinking that the last five times Nora," Ren said in a bored voice.

"And he got it right every time!" Nora exclaimed, "It's just like magic!"

Jaune eventually managed to escape the exuberant girl and made to catch up with the rest of his team. Turning a corner and passing by a handful of lost looking Atlas students, he made it back to team Brandy about halfway to their dorm. Blake trailed behind Ruby and Pyrrha with her head down, deep in thought. Pyrrha glanced back at Blake and her lips tightened slightly. His Semblance told him what he'd been dreading for weeks.

They were starting to notice.

* * *

Pyrrha and Jaune moved away from the small smoothie shack in one of the more quiet areas of Vale. Pyrrha's semi-celebrity status unfortunately made it so that most visits to Vale had to be planned to avoid highly populated areas or at least kept to early in the day. Currently they were doing both, as it was still two hours until noon on a Sunday. It wasn't normally that bad, she was more along the lines of a famous athlete than someone like a movie star and she hadn't been in any tournaments since she had started at Beacon. Her street clothes, which were currently jeans and thin gray hoodie to cover her modesty distinctive hair, helped as well.

"She followed us again." Jaune whispered.

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh a bit. Jaune had noticed Ruby's rather stalker-like third wheel habits the first weekend after school had resumed. They had thought at first that it was just some fan following Pyrrha, but after gaining some distance on their shadow, rushing down a narrow alley, and doubling back half a block they'd caught their very own teammate by surprise and she had quickly speed off with a burst of roses and a look of embarrassment. Thankfully, it wasn't all that common. This was only the third time Jaune caught on to her, though they both suspected it was more like the fourth or fifth she'd done as such.

"Should we try to ditch her?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha took a sip from her Menagerie Mango before answering. "Not much point. We can't out run her and if we call her out on it she'll just be back in ten minutes or so."

"Fair enough." Jaune conceded. "I think she's finally starting to get bored of this anyways. I doubt she'll follow us more than one or two more times." They walked silently for a few more paces before Jaune paused and then glanced at her with a troubled expression. "You need to stop worrying so much Pyrrha. I promise _I'm_ not getting bored of us. I wish everyday that I hadn't been such an idiot last semester."

Pyrrha flushed slightly, his Semblance had caught her out again. It seemed that the more time he spent around her the better that he got at reading her. It was a bit of a mixed bag in Pyrrha's opinion. She liked what it said about their relationship, but she was so use to hiding her doubts and fears from the people around her that having them laid bare made her uncomfortable. She didn't want other people to be worried on her account. "Do you have to do that?"

"I can't exactly help it, can I?" Jaune grinned. "I never understand how you can be so anxious about this after what you put me through that first day."

"Please don't bring that up," Pyrrha groaned. When Jaune had explained what his initial impression of her at initiation was, she had nearly died of shame. Looking back it on it, she was forced to admit that the things she had done were not exactly the sanest ones. The terrifyingly aggressive, boy-crazy, Pyrrha Nikos, was not how she had intended to introduce herself. Being normal was hard sometimes, okay? She didn't exactly have a lot of experience making friends like other people did. For her later years at Sanctum, most people had either been too intimidated to approach her, or just went straight to the 'ohmygoshyourepyrrhanikos!' mode. Making a good first impression was not something she often needed to do.

Jaune shrugged. "Can't say I mind how things ended. Though using your Semblance so I couldn't dodge your spear in mid-air was overkill, don't you think?"

"Jaune!" Pyrrha lightly smacked the back of his head. She had thought at the time he'd just been disoriented or something, not actively trying to avoid her. Okay, so maybe his second impression of her had been even worse than the first, but at least it meant that she got to make a third and fourth one. _Did I just justify a kidnapping? Best not to think about it._

"Alright, I'll stop. I'll stop." Jaune laughed, drank from his Strawberry Shion Swirl, and looked up as they reached the end of the block and the line of multi-storied buildings cleared for a moment. "That's new."

Pyrrha followed his gaze towards Beacon in the distance. A number of large vessels were landing on the cliffs and a greater number of smaller ones were patrolling over the surrounding area. "Are we being invaded?" Pyrrha joked nervously.

"General Ironwood is here for the tournament apparently." Jaune frowned. "This isn't normal. There's too many of them here just for an escort."

"Do you think it will it affect your trip on Thursday?"

Jaune's head moved slightly before he responded. "N-no the trip to Ansel is by train, not airship. I should be back by Sunday without any issues. Thanks for offering to collect my schoolwork by the way."

"I'm pretty sure looking out for each other is what a couple is suppose to do, Jaune."

Jaune responded after a moment. "Yeah, I suppose it is." He grabbed her free hand and pulled her forward. "C'mon, let's go find a dust shop. I bet we can lure Ruby in and get her away from us that way."

Pyrrha moved after him with a slightly false smile. As always, he had changed the subject before it could stray towards any details and most likely knew she hadn't bought the distraction either. He told her before that he had seven sisters growing up and still kept in contact with his family, but other than a brief mention that he had told his family of her, he almost never talked of them or his hometown. It was one of the reasons she was still concerned about his interest, he wasn't nearly as open around her as she would have liked him to be. The fact that he had asked her to lie to the professors and say he was out sick didn't make her feel all that great either.

* * *

AN: Oh, boy. A lot of stuff is getting put in motion right away it seems. As always, I love seeing what people think I'm going to do. So please, share your thoughts. There is one specific thing that I will straight up confirm via PM if you get it right. I want people to start figuring it out and no one even mentioned it during the first volume.

Not sure how I feel about the CRMEN scene. I needed to show that volume one caused butterfly effects, but I worry people are going to think that the scene only happened because of a chance encounter involving a wallet. A similar conversation was inevitable, this was just a way for me to transition into it. If enough people think that I should remove that specific Emerald scene, I probably will.


	9. Chapter 2-2

AN: Over 1k follows? Damn guys, thank you. Have an extra long chapter.

* * *

The Semblances We Keep: Volume Two, Chapter Two

* * *

The next weekend, Blake and Pyrrha strode towards Tukson's Book Trade. Unlike last semester, their visit had nothing to do with an investigation into criminal activities, but the mission was no less important to the disguised faunus.

"I still don't understand how a man with four souls makes for a good sequel, that doesn't sound like a very original idea." Pyrrha said skeptically.

"I can't say I disagree, but Ursula Berpdioloo has never lead me wrong before. Besides, you're the one who asked to go with me. Nothing better to do this weekend?"

"I can't train all the time, and our workload has been dwindling ever since all the visiting students started showing up. I think even Dr. Oobleck is starting to feel a bit overworked with all the preparations for the Vytal festival. I'm looking forward to fights with actual guidelines and not well..." Pyrrha's face took on a complicated expression "...murders."

"And Jaune isn't around either." Blake noted with a smirk. "I'm sure coming here has nothing to do with you borrowing 'Ninjas of Love' the very day after he left, does it?" It had been the strangest thing ever when Pyrrha had broached that subject. She had asked so timidly that Blake couldn't even bring herself to feel self-conscious about lending it to her. The whole team knew what other kinds of literature she read anyways, so there wasn't really a point in feeling bashful about it around them. It was both uncomfortable and liberating for her, since she was neither able to, nor needed to, hide anything from Team Brandy.

Pyrrha certainly felt like she had something to hide, however. "If you try to tell Jaune I was reading that, I will tie you up with your own weapon," she threatened.

Blake wasn't falling for that. Pyrrha might be unmatchable in the dueling ring, but she was far too kind to have her threats hold any weight when directed at her friends. "Kinky. I can see that book is having its effects on you already."

Pyrrha reacted about the way Blake had expected her to. The poor girl was so confident when it came to things like killing Grimm and facing down people like Cardin, but was a bit lacking in the social confidence department. She wasn't awkward like Ruby, but her life of fame had clearly stunted certain aspects of her behavior. Even though she must know that Blake was joking, Pyrrha's face still reddened. "I didn't mean it like that…"

"Relax, I already caught Ruby with it once. Despite how much she yelled at me for it, she seemed to really enjoy the katana bit. I'm pretty sure that girl has repressed desires for all things mechanical." Blake glanced at her. "Also, you do realize that Jaune will probably figure out that you've read it eventually."

"I finished it yesterday, he can't read minds, he'll never know." Pyrrha responded far more confidently than Blake had expected for a topic this risqué.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I've uh, tested things. He definitely can't figure stuff like that out." Pyrrha coughed. "A-anyways, let's get you that book." Pyrrha held the door open for her and quickly ushered her inside before Blake could ask her what she meant by that.

A tall, light-skinned woman, with straight dark-blue hair, that fell well past her shoulders, was standing behind the counter. Tukson would never have allowed anyone else to manage the store alone; he cared about the place too much. He didn't really need any other employees either, considering the size of the store. He must have taken her advice, finally given up on the White Fang, and left Vale entirely.

Pyrrha wandered off to the left side of the shop, inspecting titles with only a mild interest. While Jaune might not be a mind reader, actually buying something and bringing it back to their dorm would probably be a dead giveaway. After a brief search in the new releases section, Blake found the not very originally titled "The Man with Two Souls II: The Man with Four Souls" she had been looking for. After spending some time 'educating' Pyrrha on the finer points of literature, Blake moved to the center of the shop.

"Are you the new owner?" Blake asked as she approached the counter and the woman rung up her order.

"Yes, I moved in just a few weeks ago." The middle-aged woman said as she took Blake's lien and bagged the novel. Pyrrha began to finish up her browsing and walked up to join Blake. She didn't seem to have wanted to do more than look at her options.

"Tukson sold it to you then?" Blake conversed as she took her purchase back.

"Oh no. I bought it from Vale itself."

"Vale?"

"He was found dead and he didn't have any next of kin, so it was reclaimed by the city council."

Blake's heart dropped slightly. "Found dead?"

"Terrible thing, murdered it seems, sounded like a robbery gone wrong and this is normally such a quiet part of town too." The woman said in a disappointed voice.

Blake had a pretty good idea as to the real cause. The timing was far too perfect for it to have been anything other than the White Fang. Once she might have never believed it, but now she wasn't going to dismiss the thought just because she didn't find it pleasant. Blake had never known Tukson all that well, but he wasn't a bad person and, given the number of things the two faunus had in common, the only reason she hadn't known him better was just because of their respective locations within the White Fang itself. He certainly hadn't deserved his fate and Blake couldn't help but feel partially responsible, though she knew that she wasn't really to blame. At least the new owner seemed torn up about it, even if she hadn't known Tukson personally, and she seemed to be running the store about how Tukson would have. "It was nice of you to keep the old name."

"I just haven't had time to change it, unfortunately. It'll be nice to be rid of it, maybe I won't have so many of his type dropping by then."

Well, so much for that sentiment.

Pyrrha twitched a bit beside her. "His type?"

"He was a faunus, I'm afraid."

Great. So the White Fang scare off and then kill one of their own members and it clears the way for a bigot to start up a business in his place. What a fantastic precedent for them to be setting.

Blake forced herself to remain calm. This wasn't some fellow student like those on Team Cardinal whom she could take her frustrations out on in Professor Goodwitch's class. She was a civilian, who likely didn't even have aura. Arguing with someone like this would get her nowhere and anything more extreme would land her in far worse trouble. Blake grabbed Pyrrha before she could change her mind. "Come on, we'd better get going." Blake glanced at the woman's dark-blue hair again as she made to leave the store and felt a creeping suspicion. "I don't think I caught your name."

"Mrs. Lark, my dear." The woman said with a pleasant smile. "I do hope to see you again soon." Blake couldn't bring herself to respond, she just let the door shut behind her in silent anger.

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked as they walked away from the shop and down a deserted street. "From your last talk with Tukson it didn't sound like you two were close, but…"

"We weren't, but I still considered him a friend, if a distant one. If the White Fang has started killing people who try to leave…"

"Should we be worried about you?"

"No, I doubt it. I was never a part of the Vale branch. It's more what it says about the organization as a whole. Working with criminals was the last straw, but now they've resorted to murdering fellow faunus even."

"We drove them to this," Pyrrha said with a sad expression. "It's nothing new, there are humans back in Mistral that were no better than that woman."

"Don't blame this on your species Pyrrha, that's as bad as blaming me or Velvet for the current state of the White Fang." Blake scowled. "I just wish I'd known what she was before I bought this book off her. Giving someone like that profit irks me to no end."

"I don't think you should be too worried about handing over your lien." Pyrrha gave her a smile out of the corner of her mouth. "She probably won't be having too many more customers today."

"Why's that?" Blake felt curiosity come in to replace her previously sour mood.

"Front doors don't tend to open when you mangle the hinges as badly as I did." Pyrrha said nonchalantly.

"You didn't?!" Blake wondered what she'd ever done in life to deserve having Pyrrha on her team.

"I might have."

"What if they catch you?"

"How could they? Nearly no one knows my Semblance. I just wish I could have stuck around long enough to see her face when she figures it out."

Blake smiled. "I'm not sure if it was ever required, but you officially have your team leader's blessing to date Jaune."

* * *

"Are you okay in there, Jaune?" Pyrrha's voice came through the door.

"I'm totally fine." Jaune lied. He was once again kneeling before the porcelain throne. It was where he ended up during most flights into Vale. His friends did not need to know about the finer details of his stomach contents, thank you very much.

After his stomach no longer had anything left to lose, he rejoined Blake and Pyrrha as the ship made its final descent. At the insistence of Pyrrha, they were about to begin their quest to find Blake a bookstore that was both up to her standards and not run by a casual racist. Short of pulling off her bow or asking the owner directly, there wasn't really a way for Blake to find that out, hence Jaune's presence and the Pyrrha that came along with it. "Are you sure you two don't mind doing this? I can't imagine this is the most exciting way to spend your Tuesday afternoon."

"Don't worry about it, Blake," Pyrrha assured. "We're happy to help." They all swayed a bit as the airship touched down and shielded their eyes as the doors opened and the sunlight came in. Stepping off the airship, the trio took a brief walk and arrived in the mild bustle the commercial district normally experienced for a late weekday.

Jaune looked down at the map he had up on his scroll and gestured down the street to the right of them with his hand. "The first store three blocks that way."

The trio jokingly discussed the questionable veracity of Port's latest self-congratulatory story as they walked the distance to reach Lagune's Literature, not exactly a promising start, given the name.

"You don't even need to help me with this one." Blake gave a look of disgust and irritation at the front of the first store. "Neither of you will be able to hear it, but they have a high-pitch noise emitter of some kind. It's more common in Mistral and Atlas, they use it to discourage faunus from loitering in an area."

"That's barbaric," Pyrrha scowled.

" _The device is near the top left corner, above the doorway,_ " his Semblance indicated, after Jaune failed to located it himself.

"There." Jaune pointed at the small gray box which was well hidden under the overhang.

"Should I...?" Pyrrha held up one hand and made a squeezing motion to indicate her willingness to vandalize the device. Pyrrha was so straight laced right up until she saw something unjust being done to another. When that happened, pray that you weren't the cause of it.

"No Pyrrha, not this time," Blake answered quickly, lowering the girl's arm. "I don't want anyone to start investigating why a string of bookstores is being vandalized. Plus it's already going to cut down on their profit. Unlike TBT's new owner, this person has made it very clear to faunus, or at least those of us with enhanced hearing, that we just aren't welcome." They moved on and traveled about two-thirds of the way to the next closest bookstore when Jaune was warned of the incoming incident he was never a fan of.

Someone had noticed Pyrrha.

A girl with mousy brown hair, perhaps a year younger than Ruby, was staring wide-eyed at his partner from the other side of the street. After a moment or two of hesitation, the girl raced across the road, giving only the slightest glance to the sides to make sure she wasn't about to be flattened. She reached them and timidly spoke up. "A-are you Pyrrha Nikos?"

Pyrrha nodded and gave the smile she always did in these situations. The girl pulled out her notebook from her backpack and asked for an autograph in an equally timid manner, face brightening immensely when Pyrrha did so. Jaune felt his heart go out to the girl, this was clearly going to make her day. His mood still soured however, as the rest of the girl's friends noticed where she had gone and five more rushed over to make the same request. That was the problem.

It was never just the one.

There were around a dozen other people within shouting distance of them right now, and people noticed when crowds gathered. They started paying attention to the tall Mistral girl and trying to place her face. Thirty percent or so would figure it out and would drift closer, hoping to get a word in edgewise, and the process would repeat. As expected, an elderly couple came up soon after and asked for a photo as politely as they could, seeming concerned to be taking up her time.

"No, its fine." Pyrrha said with a smile. "I'd be happy to oblige."

Jaune frowned as his Semblance told him quite the opposite. Pyrrha just didn't have it in her to say no. He wasn't bothered so much that it separated him from her, it was much more what it did to Pyrrha everytime it happened. They didn't mean her any harm, and on the physical side that was never a concern when it came to Pyrrha, but he hated watching her having to put up that wall of false happiness for people she'd never met before. Jaune watched in frustration from his new position a few yards away as two or three more groups approached her, each less timid about making a request, the vague semblance of a line began to form, and Pyrrha soon resembled more of an attraction than an actual person. She fell into the standard pattern of exchanging meaningless greetings and accepting compliments she didn't want, from people she didn't know.

In one of the pauses in between fans, she looked past the dozen or so people around her to him and Blake. "Go on ahead, I'll just catch up with you later." She made shoo-ing gesture at them with her free hand, the other busy signing a loose article of clothing.

"Pyrrha." Jaune made sure his face indicated that he wasn't falling for that.

"Really, I don't mind." Pyrrha said with another smile that would have been convincing, were it not for his Semblance, which disagreed strongly. Pyrrha wasn't going to change her mind however, and if he kept pushing, it would only make her feel like she was being rude to him instead. He didn't want to put her in a position where she felt like there was no right choice to make. Jaune turned around and jerked his head at Blake and the two moved off down the street.

* * *

"I'm sorry for that." Blake gave the small crowd a forlorn backwards look as they reached the next block.

Jaune sighed, "It's not your fault. This happens about a quarter of the time we visit Vale anyways. The time and location just made it more likely that this would occur, but it could have happened either way. I just wish she didn't let others dictate her life so much. She could learn to take a page from your book every once and awhile."

"What do you mean?"

"You've perfected the 'leave me alone or I will murder you' glare." Blake looked at him and Jaune laughed at her. "Yeah, that one. I doubt we'd have this problem if she was capable of using that expression."

Blake growled as they reached their destination. "It doesn't seem to work very well with you three, so I must be doing something wrong."

"Speaking of not leaving you alone, are you sure you don't want me to look into Tukson's murder?"

That had been Pyrrha's first suggestion when Jaune had come back, but Blake had shot the idea down, just as she forced herself to do now. "Yes, I'm sure. I hate to admit it, but I already know the cause and I doubt the police would let you look at the evidence anyways." Blake was sorely tempted to say otherwise, but she couldn't justify the risks and it wouldn't bring Tukson back.

Jaune and Blake entered the second bookstore, Hywell's Books, a much larger one than the others. Probably the largest in Vale actually, considering that there was even a second level above the back half of the store, overlooking the first like an indoor balcony. Vale didn't have any bookstore chains, but this one was certainly large enough to look like one.

Nearing the center of the store, they approached a large circular help desk, where a sharply dressed, heavyset, middle-aged man was assisting a female customer. He could almost be described as Port, if Port lost fifteen years, twenty pounds, and the facial hair. The man, who, based on his attire, was a manager at the very least, perhaps even an owner, moved out from behind the desk and off with the woman, deeper into the store, probably to help her locate something.

"Well?" Blake asked, "Get anything from him?"

"I think you're safe on this one." Jaune nodded to the desk, where a photo of the man's family rested. The man's wife was quite clearly a faunus, dispelling any concerns of that nature.

"I'm sold." Blake almost purred in satisfaction, looking around at the massive selection available to her. After Blake bought 'The Third Crusade', a book Tukson never seemed to carry for some reason, and Jaune bought a comic, they both sat down in the café attached to the store to wait for Pyrrha to catch up. The first few minutes passed by in silence when Blake closed her book, keeping her spot saved with a finger, and spoke up again. "Can I ask you something?"

Jaune looked up, "Something troubling you?"

"Not really, you said that you figured out I was a faunus on day one, but how long until you knew…?" Blake trailed off as she noted that the café, while not crowded, wasn't completely empty either.

Jaune nodded in understanding and waited a few minutes for the tables near them to clear out a bit. "I figured out you were either currently or formerly a member of the White Fang a few minutes after the faunus part."

Even with Jaune's Semblance, it was less than ideal that he had figured it out so quickly. "What tipped you off?"

"You walk funny."

Blake nearly choked on her tea. "I walk funny?!"

"It's- that's-" Jaune stammered a bit. "That's not what I meant. You walk silently, but without slowing your pace, that's not something you pick up and make a habit without a reason. That was enough for my Semblance to put the pieces together."

"And the rest of it? My father and that I'd left?"

"I didn't know who you were or whether or not you were still in the White Fang until after initiation, but hearing your last name when they presented the new first year teams was enough to learn the rest. Despite what you might think, your father isn't exactly low profile. I'm honestly surprised no one else has figured it out."

"You knew all that and still wanted me to be on your team?" Jaune had clearly already figured out how the chess pieces worked when she and Ruby had met up with them at the ruins during initiation. All he'd really known about her at that point was that she was maybe a terrorist and yet he proceeded to toss Ruby the other white knight piece anyways.

"No offense to you, but Ruby was kind of my only friend at the time, so I was willing to take the risk," Jaune jokingly gestured at the aisles behind him. "And I've learned not to judge a book by its cover. What made you ask?"

"I was just thinking about what might have happened last semester if you hadn't done that. Ruby is a great friend and all, but you and Pyrrha..."

"Aren't dense?"

Blake gave an affirmative half-shrug, half-nod. "I'm not sure Ruby would have chased after me if you hadn't told her to, she doesn't always think things through. If you'd not done that and I gained enough distance to lose her... I'm not sure if I'd have come back to Beacon."

"We'd have found you."

"And if I found Torchwick before that? Or gods forbid Neo? I would have been all by myself and alone in Vale. What was I suppose to do? Find some person I'd never met before to help me? I'd probably have gone to Tukson and ended up sharing his fate. And this scenario is still one where you and Pyrrha are on my team. I'm not sure just anyone would have even wanted to find me after that, Weiss certainly didn't at the time."

"If this is a thank you, it's a pretty round about way of doing it."

"Don't ruin it," Blake grumbled. "It's more than just the docks though, it's the little things too. Cardin brought up my bow again in Goodwitch's class last Friday, when you were gone. It seems he's not above hinting at it."

Jaune leaned forward in concern, "What happened?"

"Pyrrha overheard and asked Goodwitch for a match with him."

"Ah," Jaune leaned back with a small laugh. "I'm guessing he won't be making that mistake twice?"

Blake let out a sadistic chuckle, "Not if he wants to keep what's left of his teeth." Pyrrha had taken his aura below the safety line so fast Professor Goodwitch hadn't even had the time to stop the match before the damage had been done. Pyrrha had apologized profusely for it of course, but it had been terrifying to watch.

"I'm sorry for making that necessary in the first place."

"Jaune, despite your Semblance, you really can be dense sometimes. I came here looking for a fresh start and I hoped that I'd be able to just blend in and graduate. I've pretty much failed to blend in, but it's happened in just about the best way possible." Blake wiped something out of her eye that was definitely just dust and continued. "It's been nothing like I thought it would be. I can't say things are perfect, but..." The words weren't easy to get out, but it needed saying. "Just...thank you for giving me a chance."

"Most people deserve a chance at a new start, Blake."

"Most people?" There had been something hidden in Jaune's voice.

"Not all," he confirmed with a more serious expression.

Blake made to ask him to elaborate, but the distant jingle of the doors interrupted her thoughts. A drained looking Pyrrha entered the store and looked around with a tired face and hopeful eyes. It was probably for the best that Jaune's back was to her and had yet to spot her. Pyrrha's expression would not have put him in a good mood. Blake raised and arm up, which Pyrrha quickly spotted and her face brightened. Blake had no Semblance like Jaune's, but she knew Pyrrha well enough by now to see that this was not the same forced smile she had hidden behind when interacting with her fans.

Pyrrha walked up behind Jaune and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Any luck?"

Jaune tilted his head as far as he could to look up at her with a smile. "I think we've found the one."

"Glad to hear it." Pyrrha looked to Blake, almost seeming to be searching for something. "If there's anything else that's been troubling you, you know you can tell us." Jaune shifted a bit under Pyrrha's hands.

Blake hesitated before giving them a smile, "I'm fine Pyrrha, this place is perfect." Pyrrha didn't quite seem to believe her, but didn't press the issue.

* * *

A few days later, Ruby was in the midst of conquering the world.

Or trying to at least, her rivals weren't exactly making it easy. "Pyrrha Nikos, prepare your kingdom for battle!" she shouted at one of her three opponents from across the large table. Beacon's librarians had long since given up trying to keep their two teams silent.

"I shall ready my defenses." Pyrrha nodded, playing along from her seat on the Anima side of the board.

"I deploy, the Atlesian Air Fleeeet!" Ruby yelled excitedly. "Looks like I get to fly right over you Ursai and attack your walls directly!"

"I'm so sorry Ruby, but you just activated my trap card." Ruby's opponent revealed a card and reluctantly presented it to Ruby. It had a giant Nevermore on the front. At least Pyrrha was trying to be nice about it. Ruby prayed for Pyrrha to roll a six or lower, having the Nevermore turn on her own forces and spare Ruby's loyal Air Force.

No such luck. Pyrrha rolled an eight and fatal feathers massacred Ruby's fleet. "Noooooo! My fearless soldiers!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Well Blake, it's your turn!" Yang moved over to the faunus with a cunning gleam in her eye.

"Huh?" Blake looked up. "Yang, I have no idea what's going on."

"Look, it's easy." Yang leaned over Blake's shoulder. "You're playing as Vacuo, which means all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus. See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge Oh! Oh! Resourceful Raider…"

"Okay…" Blake still seemed pretty disinterested, but Yang didn't seem to have noticed that Blake had stopped listening almost right away.

"…And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance boost against natural hazards, you could use Sandstorm to disable Pyrrha's ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate her kingdom." Yang clearly had it out for Pyrrha. No one was allowed beat Ruby's sister at this game, not even Qrow.

"Fine, whatever," Blake shrugged. "Let's do that."

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha said, as she played yet another trap card, this time against Blake.

"You don't sound very sorry," Ruby grumbled. _Since when is Pyrrha this good at board games?_

Blake glanced at the card. "Death Stalker Swarm? What does that mean?" she asked in mild curiosity.

"Your armies have been destroyed," Yang said with a sigh.

As the game continued to tilt in Pyrrha's favor, a disheartened Ruby looked at the next table over to see what the others were up to. Weiss and Ren were studying on opposite ends of the table, Jaune was typing something on his scroll, and Nora was drooling on Ren's textbook, snoring softly. Back at her own table Ruby realized she'd missed Pyrrha's turn and looked in despair at how few territories the self-proclaimed 'Queen of Mistral' now had left to conquer. At least Yang had some fight left in her. "Alright Nikos, it's my turn and you're going down!"

"Actually," Pyrrha coughed lightly as she spoke up. "I still have to draw my rewards, which I believe are doubled this round, thanks to the Mistral trade route."

"Bah," Yang scoffed.

"And ummm…" Despite how apologetic she sounded. It looked to Ruby as though Pyrrha had a small, but very satisfied, smile on her face. "I _do_ also have Smugglers of the Wind Path, so I'm afraid I'll be taking two cards from your hand as well Yang."

As Yang crossed her arms in frustration, Ruby looked over at her team leader and unenthusiastic ruler of Vacuo. Blake was being even more Blake-like than usual. She'd fallen asleep twice during their game already, resulting in several awful, and possibly offensive, catnap puns from Yang. Besides the circles under her eyes, Blake seemed even more distracted and distant than she normally was. Ruby continued to worry about her partner as the game gradually progressed to what had become its foregone conclusion.

Pyrrha laughed maniacally as she wiped out the last of Yang's forces and won the game. "Yes! Fear the almighty power of Mistral! Cower as we pillage your homes and weep as we take your children from your very arms!"

"Pyyyrrhaaa..." Yang glared at her suspiciously. "Has Jaune been texting you?"

"What? Nooo!" Pyrrha flushed with guilt and tried to cover something up under the table. Ruby zipped over to grab Pyrrha's scroll from her lap before she could hide it and tossed the incriminating evidence to her sister. Yang briefly browsed through the scroll with a scowl.

"This is why we can't have nice things," Yang said, lobbing one of the tiny metal Beowolves at Jaune's head. "Are we going to have to ban your girlfriend too, lady-killer?"

"Oh come on guys, just let me play already!" Jaune said from the nearby table. "Wasn't this supposed to be a team activity?"

"Sorry Jaune, you know why you can't join us." Ruby understood now why Taiyang had never let her try out for track back at Signal. Getting your butt kicked because someone else had a dumb Semblance was definitely not the bee's knees, whatever those were.

"You guys are the worst friends ever," Jaune complained with false irritation. Ruby and Pyrrha began to reset the board, while a disgruntled Yang kept ahold of the latter's scroll to insure that a repeat of the previous game's one-sidedness did not occur.

"Sup losers!" Sun called out as he walked up to their table along with Neptune.

Blake quickly used the distraction of their Haven friends to excuse herself from the game and leave the library completely. Ruby sighed and looked sadly after her partner. Something had to be done about this. Pyrrha, it seemed, had noticed Ruby's expression and stood up. "I think Ruby and I are going to head back to the room as well. Maybe Sun and Neptune can take over for us next round?"

As Ruby got up to leave, Sun quickly took Blake's chair. "Sweet, I love this game!" Sun pointed a thumb at his chest. "No way I'm playing as anything other than Vacuo!"

Neptune sat down soon after to replace Pyrrha. "I'll be defending my home Kingdom as well then."

"We still need a fourth," Yang returned Pyrrha's scroll and called out to the next table. "How about you, Ice Queen? You're from Atlas." Now that Neptune was playing with them, Weiss seemed to be debating if she would actually cease her studies to join the fun.

Before she could make up her mind however, Jaune took a seat on the Mantle side of the board. Yang opened her mouth to object, but Jaune cut her off with a wink. "You know Yang, I hear Atlas and Vale have had quite good relations lately."

Yang caught his meaning and grinned wickedly. "I suppose I could forgive your recent transgressions in that case, the Kingdom of Vale could use a win." Ruby rolled her eyes as she turned around and followed Pyrrha out of the library. Sun and Neptune didn't know about Jaune's Semblance or Yang's competitive streak yet.

Vacuo and Mistral were about to get torn a new one.

* * *

Blake glanced up from her bed as Ruby and Pyrrha entered. Blake didn't really want to deal with her team right now, there was too much on her mind. She got up and tried to open the door to leave, but the metal handle seemed to be stuck on something. Blake turned around to see Pyrrha sitting on her bed with a hand glowing black.

"Do you mind letting me out?" Blake asked in irritation _. I swear, someone designed this entire team specifically to annoy me._

Pyrrha looked away, but kept the door shut with her Semblance as Ruby spoke up. "Something's bothering you Blake. Lately you've been quiet, anti-social, and moody."

"Uh, Ruby…" Pyrrha seemed hesitant to point out whom it was she was talking to. _I've been team leader for over a semester now, do they still think I'm that bad?_

"Which I get is kind of your 'thing'," Ruby added. "But you've been doing it more than usual and we're worried about you. Please just talk to us."

Not like Pyrrha or Ruby was going to let her do otherwise. She couldn't even leave the room right now, but she didn't really want to talk about it either. "It's nothing."

"You're still worried about Torchwick and the White Fang, aren't you?" Pyrrha asked perceptively. Blake had been trying her best not let her concerns show, but between Tukson's murder and all the dust Roman was stealing, it was hard not to think about it.

"Yes," Blake admitted. Not much point in lying, they'd just drag Jaune in if they thought she wasn't telling the whole truth. He always figured this sort of thing out eventually.

"Then let us help you," Ruby said. "We beat them last time because we went as a team."

Blake wanted to, she really did, but there was a good reason she hadn't brought it up weeks ago. The first time hadn't gone nearly as well as her partner seemed to think it had. "We only drove them off at best. Pyrrha ended up in the hospital, Ruby."

Pyrrha shyly stroked her ponytail as it hung over her shoulder, her soft smile and distant expression made it clear that she was recalling a fond memory, "I uh... I'm actually kind of okay with how that one ended though."

"Something is wrong with you, Pyrrha." Blake rolled her eyes. "Getting stabbed isn't how most girls get a boyfriend, I hope you realize that."

Pyrrha looked embarrassed, but Ruby wasn't about to give up. "Then we take Weiss along with us too. You did promise her on the way back from the docks that you would let her know if something like this came up."

This team was indeed the worst and the best at the same time somehow. "Fine," Blake sighed. "But I don't want any more people than necessary, just our team and Weiss, okay?" She could at least try to keep things subtle this time and not go looking for a fight like she had previously.

"About that…" Ruby said timidly, hiding a scroll behind her back. "Yang would kind of kill me if I went running off with you again like I did at the docks last semester…"

"Ruuubyyy…" Blake glared at her. "What did you dooo?" Ruby refused to look Blake in the eyes. Blake felt the idea of subtlety slowly turn into a pipe dream.

A few minutes later, the door behind them swung open with a bang and three blondes entered the room. "Sup losers!" Sun said again, following behind Yang and Jaune. "I hear we're going after the White Fang!"

Blake continued to glare at Ruby while she squirmed. "I only told Yang! I swear!"

Neptune and Weiss came in several seconds later, deep in conversation. Weiss didn't even seem to have noticed that it wasn't her room. Ruby kept trying to dodge Blake's angry looks. "See Blake, they didn't even bring Ren or Nora along. It's totally still a small group!"

"I regret every day since I became your partner."

"I'm the bestest teammate ever!" Ruby insisted.


End file.
